Chapter 692: Everything Was Reduced to Ashes in the Midst of Laughter and Conversation!
The entire venue was silent, not a single person spoke, everyone was stunned and speechless as they watched the scene before them, looking at the young man in the center of the banquet hall, who was as handsome as an immortal and as powerful as a god.
A chilling silence had descended upon the grand hall, thick and heavy enough to suffocate. The lingering energy from Shen Anyu's single, devastating strike still crackled in the air, smelling faintly of ozone and absolute annihilation. Where Old Qin, the vaunted Martial Arts Giant, had stood moments before, there was now nothing but a faint, dark smudge on the marble floor—a proof of power so immense it erased a man from existence.
"Old Qin couldn't even withstand one move and just… died like that?" Yu Guannan murmured, her voice a fragile whisper that barely carried in the oppressive quiet. Her charming face was a mask of dazed disbelief. She stared blankly at Shen Anyu, who stood not far away, a placid, almost bored expression on his impossibly handsome features. Her mind simply refused to process the reality of it. One moment, Old Qin was a terrifying pillar of strength, an expert at the peak of the Heaven-Human realm. The next, he was less than dust. The world she knew, the hierarchies she understood, had been shattered.
"Old Qin has fallen. It's over…" Yu Guanying's face was ashen, drained of all color. The smug confidence he'd worn like a crown all evening had disintegrated, leaving behind the raw, ugly face of terror. Shen Anyu's power was a tidal wave that had not just exceeded his control but had completely submerged his ambitions. He had exhausted immense resources and pulled countless strings to win over Old Qin, a late-stage Heaven-Human giant who was supposed to be the absolute guarantee of his victory. And Shen Anyu had snuffed him out with a flick of his wrist. It was a contemptuous dismissal of everything Yu Guanying had worked for. With Old Qin gone, who in this hall—who in all of Jiangnan—could possibly stand in Shen Anyu's way?
'No! I'm not reconciled! I still have a chance! I still have a trump card!' Yu Guanying's expression twisted into a grotesque snarl, a desperate fusion of rage and fear. The veins on his temples throbbed violently. He could not, would not, accept this. He would not lose to Shen Anyu, this silk-pants scion he had once dismissed as nothing more than a hedonistic playboy. He would not allow the Yu Clan, his Yu Clan, to be trampled and suppressed by the Shen Clan. The humiliation was a poison burning through his veins. His mind raced, latching onto a single, dark hope. He had made a pact with the devil, colluding with a Tenin from Sakura Country. A dangerous, forbidden alliance. It was his final, desperate gambit. It had to be enough. It had to be.
Shen Anyu didn't even bother to grant Yu Guanying a single glance. The so-called Crown Prince of the Yu Clan was no longer an insect in his eyes; he was a particle of dust, utterly insignificant. By extension, the entire Yanxia Yu Clan was a sandcastle he could kick over at a moment's notice, its foundations crumbling into nothingness in an instant.
If it weren't for Yu Guannan's status as a Destined Heroine, a piece still in play on a much larger board, Shen Anyu wouldn't have bothered with this charade. There would be no need for elaborate schemes or borrowed knives; he would have simply descended upon the Yu Clan's estate and crushed it under his heel, leaving nothing but ruin and memory.
Carrying the crushing momentum from having instantly obliterated a Heaven-Human master, Shen Anyu let his gaze drift lazily across the room. It swept over the assembled power brokers of Hangzhou, the magnates and titans of the Jiangnan region, each one a king in their own right. A faint, almost gentle smile played on his lips as he spoke, his voice calm and clear, yet it echoed in the cavernous silence like the crack of doom.
"I heard," he began, his tone conversational, "that you all wish to join the Yu Clan's Hero Assembly? That you intend to become enemies with my Shen Clan?"
As Shen Anyu's eyes passed over them, these men and women—renowned for their iron wills and ruthless ambition—trembled like leaves in a storm. A primal fear, cold and sharp, seized them. The hair on their arms and the back of their necks stood on end. Beads of sweat, thick and cold as marbles, erupted on their foreheads and trickled down their backs, soaking their expensive, tailored suits.
When his words finally landed, the question hanging in the air like a guillotine, their terror multiplied. Their faces, already pale, turned the color of bleached bone.
The scene they had just witnessed was not a martial arts display; it was a divine judgment. Shen Anyu's power was that of a god or a demon from ancient legends—absolute, irresistible, and utterly beyond the scope of human comprehension. What mortal strength could possibly contend with such a force?
Their gazes darted nervously toward Yu Guanying, the Crown Prince of the Yu Clan, and they saw the same panic reflected in his eyes. In that instant, whatever lingering doubts they had vanished. Everyone knew, with chilling certainty, that this young master of Yanxia's Shen Clan had completely, irrevocably, overshadowed him. The tide had not just turned; it had become a tsunami, and Shen Anyu was riding its crest.
Suddenly, a thin, hawk-faced middle-aged man broke from the frozen crowd. He practically scrambled forward, his movements jerky with haste, and performed a deep, ninety-degree bow to Shen Anyu, his posture one of utter subservience.
"Wang Tengyun of the Hangzhou Wang Clan, at your service, Young Master Shen! I wish to follow your lead!" he declared, his voice ringing with desperate sincerity.
Wang Tengyun, the wealthiest man in Hangzhou and a tycoon whose name carried weight across all of Yanxia, was legendary for his shrewd ability to adapt to shifting winds. He had just felt a hurricane.
'Old fox!'
The curse echoed in the minds of the other influential figures as they watched Wang Tengyun shamelessly abandon the sinking ship.
But his action broke the spell. A moment later, another man, clad in a priceless formal suit, rushed forward, a sycophantic smile plastered on his face as he bowed even lower than Wang Tengyun.
"Chai Yunlai of the Hangzhou Chai Clan, greetings, Young Master Shen! My Chai Clan has always enjoyed a cooperative relationship with the Shen Corporation. How could we possibly dream of opposing the Shen Clan? As long as Young Master Shen gives the order, I, Chai Yunlai, will never refuse!"
Chai Yunlai, patriarch of the Chai Clan, was one of Hangzhou's ten richest men and a titan in the Jiangnan logistics industry. His defection was another brutal blow to the Yu Clan's prestige.
"Chu Guangxia of the Hangzhou Chu Clan, greetings, Young Master Shen…"
"The Hangzhou Qian Clan pays its respects…"
"The Jiangnan Chen Clan pledges its loyalty…"
"…"
It was a floodgate breaking. One after another, the magnates and patriarchs of Hangzhou and the greater Jiangnan region surged forward. They tripped over themselves to pay their respects to Shen Anyu, to loudly declare their complete dissociation from the Yu Clan. Some went even further, openly pledging their families and fortunes to his cause.
"Zhang Yunhai of the Hangzhou Zhang Clan, greetings, Young Master Shen!"
Zhang Yunhai's demeanor was even more amiable, his face wreathed in a joyous smile as he greeted Shen Anyu. His heart was filled with a profound sense of admiration and relief. He had come here tonight expecting a den of wolves, a situation fraught with crisis. Instead, he had witnessed a complete reversal of fortune, an overwhelming display of absolute power. Truly, this was Master Shen. A flicker of regret passed through Zhang Yunhai's heart; his daughter, Zhang Yaqian, was simply not blessed enough to be with such an extraordinary man.
"Ling Qingcheng of the Hangzhou Ling Clan, greetings, Young Master Shen!"
Ling Qingcheng, her sharp phoenix eyes sparkling with a complex light, also stepped forward, her voice crisp and clear as she offered her respects.
[Ding! Detected Destined Heroine Ling Qingcheng's favorability +3. Plundering +9000 Destiny Points!]
Initially, she had been quite disgusted with Shen Anyu, viewing him as a philandering scumbag who had wronged her good friend, Zhang Yaqian. But after the events of tonight's banquet at the Hilton, Ling Qingcheng's opinion had been forcibly rewritten. Her favorability towards him had steadily climbed, and at this moment, it had reached a solid seventy-eight, just two points shy of the eighty-point threshold.
'He's still a scumbag,' she thought, 'but… he's a different kind of scumbag now.'
Looking at Shen Anyu, who stood like an emperor amidst the sea of bowing magnates and family heads, his elegant demeanor a stark contrast to the raw power he commanded, Ling Qingcheng felt her heart begin to pound erratically against her ribs. An unfamiliar heat crept up her neck, warming her exquisite, beautiful face.
[Ding! Detected Destined Heroine He Yiyi's favorability +3. Plundering +9000 Destiny Points!]
[Ding! Detected Destined Heroine He Yiyi's total favorability reached 100. Extra plunder: +300,000 Destiny Points!]
[Ding! Detected Destined Heroine He Yiyi's total favorability reached 100. Cashback…]
He Yiyi was giggling like a fool, a continuous stream of soft, happy sounds escaping her lips.
She looked at the familiar faces in the crowd—these titans of industry, these influential figures from the news and magazines, all of whom had been completely out of her reach in the past. These unapproachable big shots were now bowing their heads, their backs bent in deference before Shen Anyu.
And this Shen Anyu, her Mr. Shen, had just confessed to her. He had asked her to be his girlfriend!
It was a fairytale made real. A Prince Charming descending from the heavens on a seven-colored cloud to sweep her off her feet. He Yiyi felt herself falling hopelessly, deliriously in love, with no chance of ever extricating herself. She wasn't some powerful CEO or a peerless master; she was just an ordinary girl. How could she possibly withstand an emotional impact of this magnitude? At this moment, her heart and her eyes were filled with only one person: Shen Anyu, the man revered and surrounded by a legion of important figures.
'This must be how Cinderella felt when the prince finally found her,' she thought dreamily.
He Yiyi had completely forgotten about Ren Zhacheng's threats, her world now filled only with pure joy and blissful happiness. She felt as if she were walking on marshmallows, living inside a beautiful dream from which she never wanted to wake.
"You bastards! How dare you betray the Yu Clan?!" Yu Guanxiong saw the scene of mass defection and flew into a rage, his face purple with fury as he cursed them repeatedly. Watching the influential figures who had been fawning over him just an hour ago now groveling at Shen Anyu's feet, Yu Guanxiong completely lost his mind.
"Shut up!" Yu Guanying snapped, his voice a low, cold growl. He glared at his younger brother, his heart filled with an extreme, suffocating disgust. Although he didn't truly believe Yu Guanxiong had deliberately brought Shen Anyu here, he needed a target, and his incompetent brother was the perfect vessel for his boiling rage.
A complete loss!
A complete loss!
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