Chapter 580: Domineering

Emily glanced at him briefly before looking away while Shasha scrunched her brows and said, "Not unless his life is threatened. If you go now, it will only exacerbate and escalate the situation."

"Hm? What do you mean?" Ray asked in confusion.

Shasha looked at him in silence, making him uncomfortable before she sighed and said, "You are an elf."

Ray was stunned when he heard this, before smiling wryly, "Yeah, I'm an elf."

If he was a human, he could join the fight. Even if he killed them, there would not be any problem. At most, their enmity with the Ming family would become even stronger. However, he was an elf, someone from a different race. Just like every other race, the human race was also xenophobic. Once he joined in, and accidentally killed someone, the chances were very high, or it could be said it was almost certain this fight would transform from Max versus the Ming family to Max's group versus everyone in the capital.

He also knew this, but currently, he was too exhausted to think clearly, which made him forget this point.

'Sigh! I need to sleep for a few hours or I'll keep making such mistakes.' He sighed, and yawned.

On Durden's side, Adam and Jasmine had a look of displeasure on their faces as they watched Max. They were weakest in the group, so they were even more tired after all the fighting in the last two days, and wanted to rest badly. But this guy was going around saving beg... people and starting conflicts out of nowhere, delaying their rests.

But unlike before when they had just met Max's group, they didn't dare to throw a tantrum now because they had seen how strong Max and Emily were. In other words, they had earned their respect.

Unlike everyone who was focused on Max and the young master Ming, Durden's gaze was focused on little Rou, and he had a look of confusion in his eyes.

...

"Impudent!"

"How dare you!"

The four behind the young master Ming roared and attacked Max at the same time. Although they could feel a sense of danger from him, he surely wasn't a match for all four of them, right?

In the next moment, however, they realized how wrong they were.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Without moving from his place, he attacked four times. One was slapped, second was kicked in the gut, third was punched in his chest and last's hand was brutally twisted, causing his bones to break. Then, all of them flew back and crash landed on the ground, each looking pathetic.

"This...!"

Everyone in the crowd was flabbergasted by this scene. But none exceeded young master Ming's shock.

"You... they... how...?" He couldn't even form a single coherent sentence. Each of his four bodyguards was a three-star mage, one was even a high-stage three-star mage, but all of them were defeated in a single exchange? He couldn't believe this just like he couldn't believe he was slapped, not just one, but two times.

However, the evidence was clear. His bodyguards were on the ground, crying out in pain. Seeing how spineless he was, Max had no intention to prolong this farce. He sneered in disdain and kicked him in the gut, causing him to spat out a mouthful of blood, and sent him flying towards his bodyguards.

"I'm not killing you right now because you seemed to be their relative despite how badly you treated them. But this will be the last time I do so. So, think before you act next time." Leaving these words, he turned around, grabbed little Rou and her grandfather and left with his group.

After they had walked quite far, the old man recollected himself, and lowered his head in a bow toward Max, "Thank you for sparing his worthless life, young master. But... you have invited trouble to yourself. Given how notoriously petty and vengeful that kid seem to be is, he won't let you go."

Little Rou also looked at him worriedly. Max looked at her with a surprised look in his eyes. He had noticed while the old man took quite some time to come to his senses, little Rou didn't seem phased at all. She was mostly indifferent when she saw one of the goons die, when the young master Ming was slapped, and even when he thrashed those four three-star mages.

However, what surprised him even more about her was the fact that she seemed even younger than the time he met her in Zexin city. If at that time she looked like a twelve or thirteen year old girl, she now looked barely twelve. Just what was going on?

Shaking his head, he glanced at the old man, and casually said, "It's alright. If he really wants to court death, let him come."

Hearing this, little Rou's eyes glittered and she thought, How domineering!

After a while, they arrived in the inner part of the city. Different from the outer part of the city, here people weren't as numerous, and no one was sleeping on the streets, even though some temporary settlements could be seen, but they were neatly arranged and were in order. Although people were a little tense, there was no looting, fighting etc, and just like they had expected, not long after they entered the inner city, they found an inn, though it only had four empty rooms.

Emily, Shasha and Jasmine took one room, Durden and Adam took the second, while Max and Ray occupied the third and Little Rou and her grandfather took the last one.

After taking a nice bath, Max went to Little Rou and her grandfather's room to ask them about their current situation.

It turned out, when they got the news of the demon invasion, they had left the city with others from the Zexin city. Almost half of them died in the demons' ambush, some were killed by the magic beasts, while the rest managed to arrive at the Capital city.

After they arrived here, and saw how chaotic the outer city was, they knew they wouldn't be able to survive for more than a few days if they were lucky. However, all hope was not lost because he knew his daughter, little Rou's mother, who he had not seen since she came to the Zexin city to drop the newly born little Rou to him years ago, was working as a maid in the prestigious Ming family in the outer city.

Even though he was reluctant and didn't want to have any contact with his unfeeling daughter, or the Ming family, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and take Little Rou over to the Ming family if they wanted to survive.

But when he arrived at the Ming family's gates and told the guards he wanted to meet his daughter, Daisy, the guards told him there was no person with that name in the family, and immediately kicked them out. The old man was depressed and thought his daughter had lied to him. But he had no time to feel angry, or worry about her because they needed to find some place to live. However, before he could do that, those goons arrived and started beating him, saying they were doing it on their young master's order.

After hearing this, Max said with a thoughtful expression on his face, "It seems your daughter hadn't lied to you about working in the Ming family, and if I'm not wrong, little Rou is an illegitimate daughter of someone important in the family. Furthermore, it seems that person doesn't want to have any contact with her, that was why he had that arrogant prick kill you and throw her out of the city."

The old man looked at little Rou sleeping on the bed and sighed, "Yes, that's what I thought. Sigh! She is such a pitiful girl."

Saying this, he looked at Max with a hopeful gaze and hesitated to say something. Max could easily guess what he wanted to say. So, he calmly said, "Don't worry. Since I saved you two, I'll make sure you continue to live, and not suffer anymore."

The old man visibly relaxed when he heard this and tears welled up in his aged eyes before he stood up and bowed deeply, "Thank you so much, young master. However, I don't want you to bother yourself with me. I'm already a bag of bones and wouldn't live much longer. I just hope you keep little Rou safe. I'll be eternally grateful to you."

Max felt a bit emotional when he saw how much he loved his granddaughter, and was reminded of his father, not Ashton, but his real father back on Earth.

I wonder if I'll be able to return there and meet him again. He sighed. After the system killed that supreme mage, recovered to its original state, and the [World Gate] function appeared, he was given hope of going back and meeting him. But now... with the system in hibernation, that hope was dashed. He didn't know where and when he could find the Divine energy and awaken the system.

Shaking his head, he threw these thoughts to the back of his mind, and said, "Little Rou is young and still needs you, so don't think about dying, instead, try to live longer."

Saying this, a thoughtful expression appeared on his face as he looked at her and asked, "Is it just me or does little Rou really seem younger than before?"

Although he said this while looking at little Rou, his senses were focused on the old man and he immediately noticed the change in his demeanor, but didn't look at him or say anything further. After a moment, the old man took a deep breath and said, "Young master, I was just about to tell you about it."

"Oh?!" Max turned his gaze back to him and waited for him to continue.