164: The ruthless Zhou Yi

(Several hundred words were added in the previous chapter.)

"This person doesn't seem to put your Zhou Family in his eyes either, does he?"

Ye Xiao said unhurriedly.

Yang Jian's expression immediately changed.

He wasn't an idiot; although his ego had grown day by day recently, the Zhou Family was still a considerable power, after all.

At least, it was not an entity he could offend before he fully matured.

So, Yang Jian immediately reprimanded, "Don't try to sow discord! When did I ever not put the Zhou Family in my eyes?"

Saying that, Yang Jian then turned to look at Zhou Yi.

"Fifth Master, don't listen to his nonsense, I didn't..."

However, before Yang Jian could finish, Zhou Yi sighed softly and interrupted, "Enough, Yang Jian, you don't need to explain. I'm not an idiot."

Upon hearing this, Yang Jian's heart settled, and he sneered at Ye Xiao, "Hmph! You good-for-nothing, who knows where you popped out from, Fifth Master isn't so easily fooled. Originally, I wanted to give you a chance, but alas... Ah! Fifth Master... you..."

Yang Jian looked down, incredulously at Zhou Yi, who had appeared before him at some unknown point.

At this moment, Zhou Yi held a glowing dagger in his hand, half of which was already buried in Yang Jian's heart.

Under Yang Jian's incomprehensible and pained expression, Zhou Yi casually pulled out the dagger, then said calmly and quietly:

"It seems you really took me for an idiot."

As his voice fell, Yang Jian's throat moved a few times, and his eyes slowly lost their luster.

The next moment, his body, devoid of strength, slowly fell under the astonished gaze of Zhou Wan and the other two.

After doing all this, Zhou Yi casually put away the dagger, looked at the lifeless Yang Jian on the ground, and said indifferently, "Some people just think too highly of themselves."

With that, Zhou Yi turned around under the shocked gazes of the three younger generation, Zhou Wan.

At this moment, the coldness on his face disappeared again, replaced by his usual geniality. He said to Ye Xiao with a chuckle:

"You've seen me make a fool of myself."

"Didn't you say your Zhou Family never holds grudges against anyone? Why did you kill him?"

Ye Xiao looked at Yang Jian on the ground, a hint of regret on his face.

This guy was a Level 120 Professional. Killing him should have given quite a bit of experience, right?

He hadn't expected Zhou Yi to kill him without a word. It was a bit of a shame.

This Zhou Yi was a Level 180 Professional. He looked plump, but unexpectedly, he was an explosive assassin.

Ye Xiao had seen him make his move just now.

In the blink of an eye, he had stabbed Yang Jian more than twenty times, and every strike was a critical hit.

How could Yang Jian, only Level 120, withstand such high burst damage?

He died on the spot, and Ye Xiao couldn't even stop it in time.

One could only say it was a bit of a waste.

Zhou Yi didn't know Ye Xiao's current thoughts and still explained with a chuckle, "Didn't I also tell you that our Zhou Family isn't above bullying the weak and fearing the strong?"

"Our Zhou Family encounters such things from time to time. Some people just don't know their place and truly believe that because our Zhou Family is easy to talk to, they can ride roughshod over us without restraint."

After a pause, Zhou Yi continued:

"What's more, between offending him and offending you, as long as I'm not foolish, I'll definitely choose the former."

Ye Xiao shook his head.

In fact, he didn't really care about someone like Yang Jian.

It was just that he hadn't expected this Zhou Yi, who had previously been all smiles and harmless, to be so ruthless and decisive when he made his move.

He was a formidable person!

Although he didn't know Yang Jian, he figured he wasn't anyone of importance. He wondered where such a person got the courage to believe the Zhou Family wouldn't do anything to him.

Did he really take the Zhou Family for a pushover?

At this moment, Zhou Yi came back to Ye Xiao, saying with a chuckle, "Come, let me introduce you."

Then, Zhou Yi pointed to the three still-astonished people, "The one in the middle is my eldest niece, Zhou Wan, a Level 120 Archer. The one next to her is also my niece, Zhou Ling, a Priest, and that silly boy is Zhou Wu, a Warrior."

After the introductions, Zhou Yi continued, "If we can conquer this secret realm this time, you can let my eldest niece become the Secret Realm Controller. She is one of the key disciples of our Zhou Family in this generation, absolutely trustworthy."

Ye Xiao nodded, "Okay, I understand."

The best way to truly find those hidden NPCs was, naturally, to successfully conquer the secret realm.

Once one successfully became the Secret Realm Controller, no matter how much those NPCs hid, it would be useless.

After agreeing to cooperate with Zhou Yi, the two had already discussed it.

Due to the Eight Great Families, Ye Xiao did not want to expose his location too early.

Furthermore, if Ye Xiao became the Secret Realm Controller, it would likely be abandoned by him, just like the Miasma Hidden Forest before.

So, the Zhou Family would be responsible for providing someone to control the secret realm.

The Zhou Family had been deeply rooted in Liyue City for nearly a hundred years. Although it was difficult to develop rapidly due to the Zhi Family, maintaining a secret realm was more than enough.

At the same time, if a secret realm was well-maintained, it could generate a continuous stream of income.

Regarding the distribution of this income, Zhou Yi was very generous, stating that he only wanted thirty percent, and the remaining seventy percent would go to Ye Xiao.

Ye Xiao had no reason to be polite about this.

This was also why Zhou Wan and the others came.

Otherwise, Ye Xiao alone would be sufficient to conquer this Forest of Curses.

In his eyes, Zhou Wan and the two others accompanying him were more of a burden.

As for Yang Jian, Zhou Yi's original idea was also very simple: after all, the other party had a good understanding of the Forest of Curses.

Although Ye Xiao was powerful, with Yang Jian's help, the success rate of the conquest would naturally be higher.

Unfortunately, this fellow was too arrogant and offended Ye Xiao for no reason, so Zhou Yi could only personally deal with him.

Of course, the reason for killing him was not entirely to curry favor with Ye Xiao.

Yang Jian's words were full of arrogance, completely disregarding the Zhou Family, and the look he gave Zhou Wan just now greatly angered Zhou Yi.

He was harboring designs on his eldest niece. Her father died early, and he, her uncle, had raised her from a young age.

Furthermore, since Zhou Yi had no children, he naturally treated Zhou Wan as his own daughter.

Now, some unknown brat was actually eyeing his daughter. How many dishes had he had to drink himself into such a state?

This was where Zhou Yi was most angry.

Of course, Ye Xiao was unaware of these intricacies, and he also believed that after the matter was settled, Zhou Yi would not do anything treacherous.

After all, a shrewd person like him knew very well that offending him would not bring any benefits.

Therefore, Ye Xiao was quite at ease.

However, at this moment, Zhou Wan and the two others finally sobered up after hearing Zhou Yi's words.

Among them, the youngest, Zhou Wu, even shouted excitedly, "Fifth Uncle, you, you're crazy! How could you kill Big Brother Yang? Without him, wouldn't our journey into this secret realm be very dangerous?"

Zhou Ling on the side also complained, "Exactly, Fifth Uncle, what are you doing? How did Big Brother Yang Jian provoke you? It was clearly this guy who was late, and Big Brother Yang Jian just said a few words to him. How could you just kill him? You're really getting more and more muddled as you get older."

Zhou Yi's plump face lost its smile, and he angrily said, "Shut up, what do you know? If you talk nonsense again, I'll beat you to death."

Zhou Ling hadn't expected Zhou Yi to be so angry with her and was also startled, her small face pale as she hid behind Zhou Wan.

Zhou Wan glanced at Zhou Ling. Although she didn't understand Zhou Yi's thoughts, she still spoke up, "Uncle, what are you doing? Ling'er is scared out of her wits by you."

Zhou Yi snorted unhappily, "I'm afraid she'll lose her life with her loose tongue. I won't be able to save her then."

Zhou Wan was slightly stunned upon hearing this, then looked at Ye Xiao with some disbelief.

Being sharp-witted, she immediately understood that Zhou Yi's abnormal behavior was clearly due to this mysterious young man.

However, she didn't understand why a Level 95 Professional would be so highly regarded by Zhou Yi, and from Zhou Yi's demeanor and reactions, he even seemed somewhat wary.

On the other hand, Ye Xiao, upon hearing Zhou Yi's words, felt a bit amused, "Why do I sound like some kind of bloodthirsty demon in your mouth?"

Zhou Yi chuckled, but couldn't help but inwardly complain.

If his cousin's body were still around, hearing Ye Xiao's words would probably make him jump up and argue again.

--- ---

In the eyes of Ye Xiao and Zhou Yi, Yang Jian's matter was just an insignificant interlude, like the man himself. They didn't take it to heart at all.

However, for Zhou Wan and the two others, this incident lingered in their minds, refusing to leave.

Perhaps Yang Jian was a bit overconfident, speaking without much thought, but it wasn't so bad that... even as the three of them followed Ye Xiao into the Forest of Curses, Zhou Ling and Zhou Wu clearly still held a grudge about the matter.

As a result, while their gazes towards Ye Xiao didn't show hatred, there was certainly some displeasure.

Especially Zhou Ling, who had been scolded a few times by Zhou Yi, who usually doted on her, making her feel incredibly wronged.

At this moment, her impression of Ye Xiao was extremely poor; she only thought he had used some smooth talk to deceive her muddle-headed Fifth Uncle.

However, due to Zhou Yi's strict warning, despite her indignation, she didn't dare to make any excessive moves towards Ye Xiao.

Ye Xiao naturally saw all of this, but Zhou Yi hadn't explained his identity to them, clearly fearing that these three would speak carelessly and leak his information.

He naturally wouldn't be foolish enough to reveal his identity either.

At this moment, as the four entered the Forest of Curses under Zhou Yi's hopeful gaze.

Ye Xiao immediately felt an invisible force of rules binding him. Although this power was very weak, it still made Ye Xiao feel a bit uncomfortable.

At this time, he also saw a status icon appear on his body.

The Weakness Curse: Under the influence of the curse, all your current attributes are reduced by 1%, and will recover after leaving the Forest of Curses.

According to Zhou Yi, this Weakness Curse could stack up to 80 layers, at which point his combat power would be reduced to 20% of its original.

At this moment, Zhou Wu's voice rang out.

"Sister Wan'er, Sister Ling'er, this Weakness Curse is a bit troublesome. It even weakened my speed. Be careful, don't stay too far from me, or I'm afraid I won't have time to rescue you."

Listening to Zhou Wu's solemn tone, Zhou Ling and Zhou Wan both nodded in succession.

However, just then, they noticed that Ye Xiao seemed to have no sense of crisis at all, leisurely surpassing Zhou Wu and walking towards the Dense Forest ahead.

Although Zhou Wu was somewhat displeased with the level 95 Ye Xiao, his usually honest and dull nature hadn't forgotten Zhou Yi's instructions for them to cooperate well with Ye Xiao.

As the front-line tank, he immediately shouted to stop Ye Xiao.

"What are you doing? You're a mage walking in front. If we encounter monsters later, I won't have time to save you."

Ye Xiao heard this and said without turning his head, "With your current state, if you continue to move so slowly, you'll probably be killed by ordinary monsters before you even find the boss."

Zhou Ling, behind him, immediately became unhappy upon hearing this.

"That's not because of you, making Fifth Uncle lose his mind and kill Big Brother Yang Jian! He was the only one familiar with the terrain here. Now that he's gone, you're here making snide remarks."

Ye Xiao frowned. To put it nicely, Zhou Ling was innocent and naive, ignorant of the world.

To put it harshly, she was actually foolish and stupid, still not understanding the situation.

Leaving aside why Zhou Yi killed Yang Jian, just Zhou Yi's attitude towards him already proved that his value far exceeded Yang Jian's.

But Zhou Ling couldn't see it at all.

Ye Xiao disliked such naive young girls the most. If it weren't for Zhou Yi's sake, he would have left them behind and gone on alone.

"Indeed, bringing a few burdens is troublesome," Ye Xiao sighed softly.

However, at this moment, Zhou Wan, who had been silent, spoke up.

"Alright, Little Ling'er, since Grand-Uncle thinks highly of him, he naturally has his reasons. Yang Jian's matter is in the past. What's most important now is that we work together, otherwise, it's very possible we won't find the boss and will instead lose our lives for nothing."

Compared to Zhou Ling and Zhou Wu, Zhou Wan didn't have many thoughts about Yang Jian's death; instead, she felt a sense of relief.

After all, ever since Yang Jian saw her, his gaze was always overtly aggressive, which she deeply detested.

But due to his help to the Zhou Family, she could only endure it.

Clearly, Zhou Wan held considerable authority among the three.

After listening to her words, although Zhou Ling still looked at Ye Xiao with displeasure, she still cast two status skills on Ye Xiao.

Vigorous Blood and Light as a Swallow

Feeling the changes in his body, Ye Xiao couldn't help but look back at Zhou Ling, but he was met with a beautiful roll of her eyes.

This woman was a bit stupid, but she didn't have any malicious intent.

Even if these two status buffs were negligible for him.

At this moment, Zhou Wan's voice also came.

"You, you should still come over. Little Wu is a pure tank warrior; he can protect your safety."

Because Zhou Yi hadn't revealed Ye Xiao's name, Zhou Wan and the other two still didn't know what Ye Xiao was called until now.

However, Ye Xiao still shook his head, but this time he uncharacteristically offered an explanation.

"No, if we do that, our progress will be too slow. We don't know the boss's location, and if the time drags on, it will be even more disadvantageous for us."

Zhou Wan naturally understood Ye Xiao's meaning. Although he was right, for a squishy mage to rush ahead so recklessly, wasn't that courting death?

Just as Zhou Wan was about to continue persuading him.

A faint rustling sound suddenly came from the bushes on both sides.

Normally, such a subtle movement would be very difficult for people to notice.

But Zhou Wan heard it.

In an instant, Zhou Wan's eyes became sharp.

"Little Wu, be on guard."

"Ling'er, be ready to cast buffs at any time."

After a pause, Zhou Wan looked at Ye Xiao and urged, "There are monsters; hurry over here."

After speaking, she no longer paid attention to Ye Xiao, and with a flick of her hands, an exquisite longbow appeared before her.

As the bowstring was drawn, an energy arrow instantly condensed.

Zhou Wu and Zhou Ling on the side were on guard, their faces full of tension.

Seeing this scene, Ye Xiao couldn't help but take another look at Zhou Wan.

The sound was very faint, and they were eight or nine hundred meters away.

With Ye Xiao's current attributes and combat power, it was perfectly normal for him to detect the movement immediately.

But it was somewhat surprising that Zhou Wan was able to detect the monster's movement at the same time as him.

Even for an archer, who specializes in agility, achieving this at this level was not easy.

At this moment, Zhou Wan's peripheral vision also caught sight of Ye Xiao, who looked unconcerned, and she felt a surge of anger.

But despite her inner frustration, Zhou Wan couldn't help but shout, "What are you still standing there for? The monsters are moving very fast; it'll be too late if you wait any longer."

However, as her voice fell, the urgent rustling sound was already rapidly approaching.

This time, even Zhou Wu and Zhou Ling could clearly sense the movement.

The next second, several rather large dark figures burst out from the left side of the bushes, and then, without any pause, they rushed towards the group with swift and urgent speed.

"Watch out! It's a level 100 Dragon Mane Leopard!"

When Zhou Wan saw the suddenly appearing monsters, her pretty face tightened, and a fine sweat broke out on her hands gripping the bow and arrow.

Before coming, she naturally had some understanding of the situation in the Forest of Curses. Although the level 100 Dragon Mane Leopard wasn't an overly powerful monster.

Its speed, however, was incredibly fast.

If it were a one-on-one fight, Zhou Wan could naturally handle it with ease.

After all, she was a level 120 archer, a full 20 levels higher.

But with eight appearing at once, no matter how strong she was, she couldn't kill them all in a short time.

But in that case, Zhou Ling on the side would be in danger.

At this moment, Zhou Wan also felt a hint of anger towards Ye Xiao.

Not only was this guy low-leveled, but he also had such a poor sense of crisis.

If he had listened to her earlier and hidden behind Zhou Wu, with his profession and her cooperation, they could have easily resolved the current trouble with Zhou Wu drawing their attention.

But now... facing eight incredibly fast level 100 Dragon Mane Leopards, a level 95 mage's fate was predictable.

There was no escape.

However, Zhou Wan did not intend to give up just yet.

She shifted her bow, aiming near Ye Xiao, intending to try and save him.

However, at this moment, she saw that the instant the Dragon Mane Leopards appeared, Ye Xiao not only had no intention of retreating.

He even raised his staff and charged straight towards the Dragon Mane Leopards.

At this moment, it wasn't just Zhou Wan.

Even Zhou Ling and Zhou Wu on the side gaped, staring at Ye Xiao in astonishment.

Was this guy crazy?

A mage with a staff going into close combat with a Dragon Mane Leopard?