Chapter 269: The Fall of the Zheng Family
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Chen Fan?”
Everyone looked to the black-haired young man strolling down the path with surprise in their eyes. No one could believe that even after Zhou Daoji unleashed the Art of Nine Dragon Spell Chain, Chen Fan could still emerge victoriously.
“Chen Beixuan, where is my master?”
Zhang Ziru asked with a contorted face. He didn’t care to address Chen Fan properly and called out his full name.
“Huh?”
Chen Fan tilted his head slightly and snorted. Suddenly, two azure-colored lights burst from his eyes and shot at Zhang Ziru with a crackling sound. It was his Divine Will.
Zhang Ziru was suddenly dealt a blow. He stumbled and was nearly knocked to the ground.
Although he was Perfected Cultivator of Dharma Cultivation level, his soul energy was a far cry from that of Zhou Daoji and Lei Qianjue. He was immediately gravely injured after he sustained one strike from Chen Fan’s Divine Will.
Chen Fan had completed the Soul Refining Art and therefore, he was able to project his Divine Will outward over a hundred meters. Although he was not able to form it into physical shape in the real world, the Devotion Energy he had obtained from the golden figurine had helped him to project his divine will as far as a few kilometers. If Chen Fan really wanted, he could have covered the entire Hong Kong island under his Divine Will. Such unimaginable amount of energy would overload any mortal’s system. Zhang Ziru survived the attack only because he was a Perfected Cultivator.
Many other spellcasters were stunned after seeing the development.
Zhang Ziru was Zhou Daoji’s disciple, a Perfected Cultivator. However, Chen Fan’s deadly stare had already injured him. Does that mean Chen Fan could have killed anyone of them just by thinking about it?
Perfected Cultivator Soaring Cloud heaved a sigh and then charged up his energy before he walked over to Chen Fan and bowed.
“Grandmaster Chen, Ziru is Brother Zhou’s disciple and cares about his master. Please forgive his insolence.”
The azure light in Chen Fan’s eyes dissipated and revealed his indifferent eyes. He linked his hands behind his back and said: “Zhou Daoji is dead.”
Hearing the news, Zhang Ziru finally collapsed to the ground and broke into tears. Zhou Daoji had treated him like a son and had shown him the ropes and guided him with love and care. The news of Zhou Daoji’s death took the wind out of his sails, and robbed his mind of all thoughts, leaving only sadness.
The other surrounding people also fell silent.
Zhou Daoji had used the Array formation to cast the Nine Dragon Spell Chain, he should have an edge over Chen Fan. How did he die? Despite the questions in everyone’s mind, no one spoke a word. The battle of Dharma powers was a battle of life and death. There could only be one combatant coming down from the peak of the mountain alive, and it was not Zhou Daoji.
Little did everyone know that Zhou Daoji was not killed by Chen Fan. He had given all he had in summoning the Earth Qi to cast the Array formation, and one careless misstep and made him suffer from serious blowBack effect of the energy he had summoned. Before Chen Fan could strike back, the old man had already overloaded his system and died. That being said, Chen Fan knew that no one was going to believe it if he told people the true story. He would forever be remembered as the murder of Zhou Daoji, but Chen Fan didn’t mind.
Chen Fan linked his hands behind his back and suddenly, a powerful and overbearing power shot out from his body and swept down the steps to the other spellcasters.
Daoist Soaring Cloud, Zhang Ziru, Huang Wenze, and many other powerful Feng Shui masters and spellcasters lowered their heads as the powerful energy swept past them.
Some stubborn spellcasters didn’t lower their head and still locked their indignant gazes with Chen Fan. The azure light came up in Chen Fan’s eyes again and the few spellcasters who still defied Chen Fan’s dominance collapsed to the ground. Even Zhang Ziru couldn’t handle his Divine Will, much less a few ordinary spellcasters.
In the end, everyone lowered their heads before Chen Fan as they capitulated to his power.
“Zheng Zhongming.”
When Chen Fan’s gaze landed on the Zheng family, Old Man Zheng s.h.i.+vered and let out a wry smile. “Fine, fine… I have been gambling for my entire life and never lost one. Who would have thought that I would lose the very last gamble in my life?”
The other family members, including Zheng Haochang all trembling uncontrollably.
Zheng Anqi felt a pang of despair, as her heart sank to the bottom.
They had never thought that Chen Fan would be the winner in the end. If even Zhou Daoji who possessed G.o.dly power had failed to subjugate Chen Fan, who else could do that?
“Mr. Chen, I have lost the bet. I only hope you would show mercy and take only my life and spare the rest of my family.” Zheng Zhongming leaned on his walking cane and rose to his feet slowly.
“Dad!” Zheng Haochang and the others were so saddened by the development that their words caught in their throat.
Zheng Zhongming didn’t mind the wordless pleading of his children. He ordered Cui Qinhe to hand over a doc.u.ment to Chen Fan.
“This is my will. I will give you 30% of Zheng’s Financial Group to exchange for the lives of my family.” Zheng Zhongming coughed and then said slowly.
Old Man Zheng had been preparing for the worst from the very beginning.
It would be wonderful for the Zheng family if Chen Fan lost the battle. However, if Chen Fan was victorious, he would give up the Zheng’s Financial Group in exchange for the lives of his family.
The Zheng’s Financial Group was worth over a few dozen billion and the Zheng family owned just over 50% of it. The rest of the shares were in the hands of smaller investors. 30% of the shares were worth twenty to thirty billion on the market; it was much more than the ten billion Chen Fan had initially asked for.
That being said, losing that much stake in the company would be a devastating blow to the Zheng family. That also meant that Chen Fan would become the biggest shareholder of the Zheng’s Financial Group. From then on, the Zheng family would be thrown out of the top ten richest list of Hong Kong.
Despite the sorrow and sadness in everyone’s heart, no one spoke a word. After all, they valued their lives more than half of their family a.s.sets on any given day.
“That’s not enough.”
To everyone’s surprise, Chen Fan refused.
Zheng Zhongming didn’t seem to be surprised by Chen Fan’s answer. He let out an ugly grin and then asked: “So, you are not going to let any of us live?”
The other people looked to Chen Fan with fear. Although the stakes of the bet were set in place before many witnesses, when the moment of life and death really came, no one could easily come to terms with the outcome in which all the members of the mighty Zheng family were going to perish.
Chen Fan took a step forward and said: “I, Chen Beixuan have killed many people in my life, but none of them were innocent.”
“Zheng Anqi had prolonged your life using my medicine; that was a debt you and Zheng Anqi owed me. It had nothing to do with anyone else in the family.”
Chen Fan raised his hand and grabbed hold of Zheng Zhongming’s collar.
“Your life belongs to me, and I am taking it back now.”
After he had said that, life suddenly ebbed away from Zheng Zhongming’s face. In a blink, his legs gave in and he collapsed into the chair, body trembling lifelessly. His skin became wrinkled and blotchy and other than the faint wince, he could not form a word. After a while, he finally closed his eyes and stopped breathing.
A tyc.o.o.n of Hong Kong was dead after Chen Fan had taken his life away.
After that, Chen Fan turned around to Zheng Anqi and met the girl’s terrified stare. He folded his hands and formed an array.
“You shouldn’t have lied to me. Today, I am going to take fifty years of your life as a punishment.”
As a gust of energy blew through Zheng Anqi’s flowy dress, her dark silky hair turned grey and white. Her tender and porcelain-like face quickly lost its youthful appearance as wrinkles started to crawl all over it. Her statuesque body shriveled until her back was bent forward. In a blink, she had transformed it a coughing, white-haired crone.
In disbelief of what she had become, she let out a terrified shriek. She covered her face and stumbled down the path. Everyone watched the development with fear and sadness. It was crueler to turn an attractive young girl into an ugly hag than outright killing her.
After a while, Chen Fan turned to face the other members of the Zheng family.
“Zheng family owes me ten billion, and attacked me, hoping to get away with the debt. Now I am going to claim all the family a.s.sets of the Zheng family. Do you think its fair?”
No one protested Chen Fan’s decision no matter how indignant they felt. Chen Fan had killed Zhou Daoji, so he had the ability to slaughter the entire Zheng family if he wanted to. Not even the Hong Kong government would say a thing about his ma.s.s slaughter since Chen Fan was simply fulfilling the terms of the bet. In the end, Zheng Haochang nodded his consent on behalf of the family with tears in his eyes.
All the other spectators were shocked by the development.
Chen Fan had toppled the Zheng family with three deadly blows.
Zheng Zhongming got to prolong his life using Chen Fan’s elixirs, so Chen Fan simply “reclaimed” his life.
Zheng Anqi prided herself on her beauty and youth. Chen Fan had taken fifty years of her life, having her take the bitterness of aging.
The other members of the Zheng family were born with a silver spoon in their mouth and never had to live a day of hards.h.i.+p. Chen Fan had taken away their fortune and turn them into ordinary citizens.
After everyone had understood Chen Fan’s methods, they were terrified by Chen Fan’s viciousness and cruelness. Instead of killing them, Chen Fan simply took away the things they loved the most and made them feel that even death was sweeter. Such as it was, Chen Fan had punished the Zheng family without killing all of them.
The Zheng family eventually signed the doc.u.ment of transferring the owners.h.i.+p of the company to Chen Fan. Chen Fan gave them three days to move out of their mansions. He was not at all worried that some members of the family would ignore him, he was looking for some target practice for his new arts anyways.
The development shocked everyone in Hong Kong. From then on, there would be no more Zheng family. The foundation of the Zheng family’s power was their wealth, without it, they were just ordinary people.
After Chen Fan signed the doc.u.ment, he looked to the spellcasters.
Zhou Daoji and Huang Wenze were terrified by Chen Fan’s gaze. They wondered if Chen Fan was going to punish everyone related to Zhou Daoji as well. Zhang Ziru cranked up his energy and was ready to battle.
To his surprise, Chen Fan said calmly to them: “I came to Hong Kong not only to collect my debt but also to gather material for my array formation. If you have any material that you think would be useful for me, I would exchange them with supreme-grade elixirs, martial arts techniques, or even the method of casting an array formation.”
By now, the Jiu Long Mountain was packed with spellcasters, Feng Shui masters and scholars of Chinese Esotericism. If Chen Fan had made the same announcement before the fight, these masters would simply brush Chen Fan off and tell him this.
“Who the h.e.l.l are you? Why would we exchange items with you?”
However, Everyone was stunned by his power and skills after watching him killing Zhou Daoji and toppled the Zheng family. The spell he used to take youth out of Zheng Anqi spoke loudly of Chen Fan’s power. There was no doubt that he was a Transcendent State Grandmaster as well as a mighty Spellcaster.
The crowd boiled over after hearing Chen Fan’s words. Chen Fan must have possessed some incredible martial arts techniques or elixirs to help him achieve such a high level of attainment at a young age. These spellcasters would be more than satisfied if they could so much as catch a glimpse of his secret arts. They were not Chen Fan’s enemy and would be more than happy to befriend this young Grandmaster through business.
“Cast Array formations? Are you planning to cast an Array formation somewhere? And you said you can teach us to do the same?”
Someone exclaimed as Chen Fan’s words finally set in.