Ch. 238 - Burn Everything for Ya

Chen Shu's heart lurched. Had he been made?

His build was similar to Lu Pingfan's, and with the mask on, there was no way anyone should have recognized him.

The security guard stood up and spoke. "Old Lu, how's the progress from last night?"

"Alright."

Chen Shu kept his composure, but the instant he got close to the guard, a sense of danger prickled at him.

This guy was no ordinary person — at minimum, he was a Black Iron-level Beast Tamer.

"The executor's retreat route — has it been arranged? What about the cleanup work?"

The guard pressed on with his questions. He might have looked like a simple security guard, but his actual rank within the group was far from low.

Chen Shu answered, "Yeah, pretty much."

"What do you mean, 'pretty much'? I'm not trying to rag on you guys, but as a liaison, you need to at least be thorough, damn it! One fucking slip-up from you and an executor could end up dead!"

The guard's expression hardened. Clearly, he was not satisfied with Chen Shu's attitude, and he pressed on.

"Remember what happened with Liu Ping last time? The whole thing went wrong because the liaison didn't investigate thoroughly. The assassination failed, even drew the Dragon Guard's attention, and made the whole job way harder."

Chen Shu froze for a moment. Liu Ping — that was the Black Iron Beast Tamer who'd tried to assassinate Fang Si.

Yep. Definitely a den of thieves.

"If anything like that happens again..."

The guard went on and on for another ten minutes...

Chen Shu rubbed his temple. For fuck's sake. Of all the things he could have planned for, he'd never anticipated running into this guy.

"Alright!"

Frowning, he spoke up. "No — I mean, why the hell do you run your damn mouth so damn much?"

"???"

The guard at the entrance froze, his eyes filling with disbelief.

A low-level liaison at the company talking to him like that?!

"Burn everything the fuck down for ya!!"

Chen Shu went ahead and said it. He still had a goddamn competition to get to, and this asshole just wouldn't shut the hell up.

In his hand, a vial had materialized out of nowhere.

He swung his right arm in two circles and hurled it straight into the office building.

In that instant, the vial shattered. The flame sealed within erupted outward, as if a seal had been broken.

The fire shot up with a roar. No matter what material it touched, it treated everything like pure alcohol.

In the blink of an eye, raging flames engulfed the entire office tower...

Black smoke billowed skyward, sweeping across the heavens. Everyone in the city now knew something had gone terribly wrong.

"Uh..."

The security guard at the entrance stood there, jaw agape, eyes bulging — for a moment, he couldn't even find words.

Had people's tempers really gotten this short nowadays?

He, as a superior, had given his subordinate a few words of criticism.

And the motherfucker had straight-up torched the company?!

Chen Shu was equally taken aback. He hadn't expected the potion's effects to be this terrifying.

In just a few dozen seconds, the potion had ignited an entire skyscraper. And aside from the roar of the flames, there were no screams.

It was the weekend. No ordinary employees were working.

Chen Shu couldn't be certain every single employee was a criminal, so he'd deliberately chosen the weekend to light the fire.

The flames raged with such intensity that they began spreading downward — underground.

That was where the organization's real base lay.

"Something's happened?!"

In the underground base, a gaunt middle-aged man's eyes snapped open in alarm.

Fire surged down from above. Despite the company's fire suppression system activating, it was utterly useless — the flames only grew more violent.

This was no ordinary fire!

"Fuck! How the hell did something go wrong so suddenly?!"

The middle-aged man's expression was beyond grim. He bolted from his room, but the fire spread like a plague.

Even with his physical conditioning, he couldn't endure heat of this intensity.

"Shit! It's got to be a high-rank fire-type contract spirit!"

Panic gripped him. His first thought was that the Dragon Guard had come to purge them.

How could their cover have been blown?

That shouldn't be possible...

The organization had taken over Nancang Dingsheng Group without leaving a single trace. There was no way they'd been discovered.

"Boss, what do we do?!"

Three people came scrambling over, their faces equally filled with terror.

"Protect the data — we're breaking through by force!"

The middle-aged man's decision was swift and absolute. As he gave the order, he summoned a terrifying Ice Lion.

The organization's leader was actually a Gold-rank Beast Tamer!

With the Ice Lion's power, the flames were finally suppressed.

But he didn't dare unleash his full strength — he was afraid of alerting the Dragon Guard to the presence of a Gold-rank Beast Tamer.

Whether they could break through or not — it all rested on him.

The entire underground base held only a few dozen people. Everyone scrambled frantically, gathering up data...

---

Meanwhile, outside the office building.

"Stop right there! You fucker!"

The security guard shouted at the top of his lungs, his eyes now filled with sheer terror.

The organization's base — was it just... gone?

And the entire reason was that he'd reprimanded a subordinate?

Wasn't this the most goddamn ridiculous thing ever?!

"This is what you get for trying to retaliate against me, the Nanjiang Bandit!"

Chen Shu grinned wide and rode off into the distance on his Golden Slime...

"It wasn't Lu Pingfan?!"

The guard's eyes narrowed. But chasing him down was already out of the question. Gritting his teeth, he pushed through the flames and forced his way back into the base.

......

By now, over at the Spirit Fighting Arena:

"As our contestant Chen Shu has been held up for a moment, we kindly ask everyone to wait just a little longer!"

The host spoke with a professional smile. Even faced with this situation, he remained perfectly unruffled.

The audience buzzed with chatter, but there were no complaints, no accusations.

"As long as we get to see the Poop Monster, we'll wait as long as it takes!"

"Exactly! For Chen Shu to be this strong, it's gotta be talent and hard work — he's probably off cultivating right now!"

"What do you mean, 'probably'? As a genius, of course he's grinding hard!"

From the competitor seating, Xu Xiaoyu and Xia Bing felt the corners of their mouths twitch.

Are you sure these aren't Chen Pi's paid water army?!

Just as everyone was waiting, someone suddenly cried out in shock:

"Holy crap, something's gone down outside!"

"It's lit! It's lit!"

"The match hasn't even started — lit my ass! My blood's still ice cold."

"I said the Dingsheng Building is lit — on fire!"

"For real?!"

In an instant, the Spirit Fighting Arena erupted into chaos. Some spectators even rose from their seats, desperate to get a look at what was happening outside.

"No way..."

Xu Xiaoyu and Xia Bing exchanged glances, swallowing hard. A terrible unease settled over them.

This was in the goddamn city center!

......

Dingsheng Building — underground base.

"Boss, the arsonist was the Nanjiang Bandit!"

The security guard had regrouped with the others and immediately named the culprit.

"The Nanjiang Bandit?"

The Gold-rank Beast Tamer furrowed his brow. The name rang absolutely no bells.

When had the organization ever provoked someone this unhinged?

The guard explained, "It seems to be because we tried to retaliate against him."

A Silver-rank Beast Tamer seemed to recall something. "That mission with Fang Si?"

One by one, the others remembered. The organization's failed missions were few. Cases where the executor never even made it back were rarer still.

Naturally, the Fang Si mission had been held up as a negative teaching example.

"Retaliate against him? What the fuck for?!"

The middle-aged man's mouth twitched. A mission failure just meant the target was too difficult — you either raised the fee, or you dropped the job outright.

Although the combat footage from that mission had been sent back, the organization had never even considered going after Chen Shu for revenge.

That was an entirely separate job — a different price tier altogether.[1]

And now the guy had tracked them down on his own and torched the organization!

Who the hell were they even supposed to complain to?!

Someone couldn't help but speak up. "Why do I feel like HE'S the criminal here..."

One word of disagreement and he went straight to burning down a building — even they weren't that ruthless!

[1] 那是另外的价钱了 (That's a Different Price): A direct echo of the viral internet meme originating from the 2014 martial arts film Brotherhood of Blades (绣春刀), in which the mercenary Ding Xiu's catchphrase "得加钱" ("That'll cost extra") became shorthand for treating everything — including murder — as a paid service with clearly defined tiers. Here, the Gold-rank boss applies the same logic: revenge against a target was never part of the original contract, so it was never authorized. The humor lies in an international assassination syndicate operating like a legitimate business with price tiers and change orders.