Chapter 230: Chapter 226: 10 Billion, I’ll Give It! (8)

“It’s you!”

At that moment, the air seemed to freeze. At the entrance to the deck, Li Yicheng, who had missed the entire series of events due to a bathroom break, reached the top of the steps and stared at Qin Fan, exclaiming in shock. His nose twitched as the pungent stench of blood assaulted his senses. He glanced around and saw more than a dozen corpses sprawled across the ground. The sight drained all the color from his face, leaving it deathly pale.

“Did you kill all these people?” Li Yicheng blurted out instinctively, his voice laced with horror.

“Is there a problem, Second Master?” Qin Fan licked his lips and gave a sinister smile, facing the man for whom he held a sliver of admiration.

Second Master? This Butcher knows the Second Master?

Hearing their exchange, everyone shivered, their gazes shifting in unison to Li Yicheng.

“Yicheng, you know him?” Li Juncheng, his face pale and contorted with terror, spun around and stared at Li Yicheng in a panic.

“A few hours ago, he won 1.3 billion at Junlin Casino,” Li Yicheng replied numbly. His legendary composure vanished completely, leaving his mind in utter disarray.

He won 1.3 billion at Junlin?

The moment Li Yicheng spoke, another wave of shock washed over the socialites on deck.

Where in the world did this monster come from? First ten billion, now a hundred billion… Just how did the Li Family manage to provoke such a malevolent deity?

Before Li Juncheng could respond, Li Yicheng swallowed hard, his mind reeling as he stared at the absurdly youthful face before him. “Who are you?! What do you want?!”

“Didn’t I already tell you? I’m just a man in Macau to collect a debt from your Li Family.” After taking over a dozen lives, the raging hostility radiating from Qin Fan seemed to subside. He gave Li Yicheng’s stupefied expression a mocking smirk.

“What debt?!” Li Yicheng demanded instantly.

“The debt for the Gambling King. For the Life Extending Fruit,” Qin Fan began, his patience surprisingly holding. “Over a month ago, your Li Family claimed you needed the Life Extending Fruit to save the Gambling King’s wretched life, and you agreed to my terms: ten billion. I gave you a full month to raise the money. Now his wretched life is saved, yet you decide to go back on your word and welsh on the debt?

“Heh. I’ve said it before, no one gets to owe me money. So, I came to collect. Second Master, is that explanation clear enough for you?”

He was like a completely different person from the violent monster who had been reaping lives moments before. Hearing Qin Fan, Li Yicheng’s expression changed drastically. His facial muscles trembled uncontrollably as he whipped his head toward Li Juncheng. “Brother Juncheng, you must have been out of your mind!”

That one anguished cry exposed both Li Yicheng’s own upstanding character and Li Juncheng’s arrogant deceit. As the dozens of socialites trembled in fear, a look of deep regret washed over Li Juncheng’s face. If he could do it all over again, he never would have dared to default on the debt, not after the man with the white temples by his side had admitted, “I am no match for him.” But there were no do-overs. He’d never imagined his own carelessness would lead to such a catastrophic defeat.

“Ten billion! I’ll pay it!”

Under the crushing circumstances, Li Juncheng had no choice. But even if he was willing to pay the ten billion, would Qin Fan accept it now?

Qin Fan let out a cold, disdainful laugh. “Mr. Gambling King, don’t tell me you suffer from intermittent hearing loss. Things have changed. You defaulted, you missed the deadline, and you pissed me off. So now, the price isn’t ten billion. It’s one hundred billion.”

One hundred billion? The figure sent a violent shudder through Li Yicheng.

“One hundred billion? You’re dreaming!” Li Wenxuan, who had narrowly escaped death earlier, could no longer control herself and roared in anger.

Could Li Juncheng produce one hundred billion? Yes, but the cost would be a complete regression to square one for his entire enterprise. In that context, demanding such a sum was indeed a pipe dream.

“Is that so?” Qin Fan’s face darkened into a sinister smile.

The words had barely left his mouth when he blurred, reappearing in front of Li Wenxuan like a meteor. Without a shred of chivalry, he shot out a hand, clamped it around her throat, and lifted her off her feet.

“I told you,” he snarled, tightening his grip slightly. “No one gets to owe me money.” Li Wenxuan’s beautiful eyes bulged as her face turned a terrifying, deathly white in an instant.

Still holding her, Qin Fan turned his head to glare at Li Juncheng. “Gambling King, the money or her life! You choose!” he roared.

“Damn it! This is Macau, not a place for you to be so reckless! Let go of Wenxuan! Let her go!” Veins bulging on his forehead, mad with rage, Huo Shaojie clenched his fists and took a large step forward, screaming hysterically at Qin Fan.

“Shaojie! Come back!” Completely stunned by his son’s loss of reason, Huo Rufeng was consumed with panic. He scrambled after him, trying to pull Huo Shaojie back. Facing a butcher who treated human life like dirt, such reckless impulsiveness was a suicide mission!

But no matter how hard he pulled, Huo Shaojie didn’t budge an inch. His crazed eyes glared furiously as he shouted again, “Let go of Wenxuan! I said let her go!”

“Noisy,” Qin Fan spat, his face a cold mask.

He flashed to Huo Shaojie’s side. His other hand shot out, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him up. “So eager to die? Fine,” Qin Fan said coldly. “I’ll grant your wish.”

“No! No! NO!” Huo Rufeng shrieked hysterically.

But Qin Fan paid him no heed, simply hurling Huo Shaojie off the deck and into the sea below.

“No! Help! Save my son! Someone save my son!” Huo Rufeng lunged for the deck railing, his voice a desperate, cracking wail.

A few young men watched Huo Shaojie struggling in the waves below. After a fearful glance at the ice-cold Qin Fan, they gritted their teeth, grabbed life jackets from a compartment at the deck’s edge, and jumped into the sea.

Indifferent to the life or death of an ant like Huo Shaojie, Qin Fan paid the rescue attempt no mind.

Meanwhile, Li Wenxuan was beginning to lose consciousness, still caught in his grip. Yet Li Juncheng remained trapped in an agonizing dilemma.

One hundred billion… It wouldn’t completely wipe out his family’s entire fortune, but it would leave them with precious little. If he paid, his ownership stake in his corporation’s casinos and various industries would plummet. He would go from being the majority shareholder to a minor one, just waiting for his dividend check. He couldn’t bear that. He couldn’t accept it.

“Good. Then pay with your life,” Qin Fan said, his patience completely exhausted, his voice devoid of any emotion. “After Li Wenxuan dies, you’re next, Mr. Gambling King.”

I’m next?

The words shocked Li Juncheng out of his stupor. He finally understood that Qin Fan wasn’t just offering Li Wenxuan’s life as collateral for the one hundred billion—he intended to take his life as well.

Facing a mad butcher who had slaughtered over a dozen men in cold blood—a man whom even his ultimate, white-templed bodyguard dared not challenge—he was left with no choice.

“Fine! Fine! One hundred billion! One hundred billion! I’ll pay!!!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep