Dual Cultivation God Returns Chapter 1025: The price to pay

Abruptly, Wu Long noticed the face of a man positioned beyond the restaurant's entrance courtyard, stealthily peering inside.

Earlier, his Spiritual Sense had detected the individual, yet he had mostly ignored him.

The sight caused him to hesitate momentarily.

Though unfamiliar with the man, Wu Long immediately spotted the delight and viciousness gleaming in his gaze.

Such deep-seated hatred wasn't typical toward mere strangers, so he realized the man must know him somehow. As memories stirred, a faint connection finally surfaced in his mind.

Wu Long's form vanished in an instant, leaving Tiezhu Bo still kneeling without attempting to rise, his raised right hand dropping to the fine gravel beside the other as agony kept him immobilized.

This sight urged the Iron Claw Group members to advance, but golden swords erupted, delivering a barrage of exact strikes in gold that repelled them once more, reinstating the frozen standoff.

At the same time, Wu Long seized another man by the neck, hoisting him against the inner side of the gate archway while his eyes narrowed. "You... I know you, don’t I?"

Terror and torment widened Huo Bai’s eyes as electric numbness coursed through him, Wu Long’s grip on his throat limiting his air just enough without fully choking it off.

Yet after moments of futile resistance, the truth of his capture sank in—he had botched everything with no escape. Then, a shift ignited within his psyche.

A wicked smirk twisted his lips as he glared at Wu Long with triumphant malice. "Khuh... ke ke ke, recognize me? Kh~... you just signed your death warrant, idiot. So what if you caught me... kehehe, you’re already done for. Do you even know who you messed with? You’re going to be very sorry soon! Ahaha! And it is because of me! Khahahaha! How is it, being cornered by a little me who you’ve effortlessly slapped away before, huh? Khahaha!"

"Yes, now I do seem to remember... you’re... Gwi Butang, right?"

"Khh~ WHO THE HELL IS GWI BUTANG?! I’m khek~... Huo Bai!!! Don’t... just randomly make up names!"

"Ah~, sorry, thought you’d be sour if I didn’t remember you in such a moment of your triumph", Wu Long shrugged slightly with feigned remorse, truly feeling a twinge of guilt for forgetting someone nursing such intense resentment during his 'grand revenge moment,' which led him to humor it, then appended, "Close enough though, no?"

"That’s... khukh... even worse! And... not even a little close!!!", flames of fury blazed in Huo Bai’s eyes.

"Anyway, now you had your moment, and I get the gist of what happened", Wu Long brushed off the clumsy exchange with a straight face, preserving the scene's gravity and tension, "I have no use for you left, Gwi Butang. Farewell"

Gwi Butang parted his lips to retort, but fierce bolts of lightning jolted through him. They ceased as suddenly as they began.

"Oh, shit, that wasn’t the right name, right? It’s the one that I made...", Wu Long realized his mistake too late, pulling a sheepish face, but since it was done, he sighed, discarded the body, and strode back through the Iron Claw Group members who eyed him with horror and caution toward Tiezhu Bo.

"I have no use for you either now. I’ll be honest, I... don’t remember your name either, but at least I won’t be making up any, plus you didn’t name yourself so you can’t blame me", Wu Long approached Tiezhu Bo, within whom lingered a loop of Sustained Charge Lightning, and knelt down.

Tiezhu Bo lifted his gaze, bloodshot and furious eyes meeting his. Yet unmistakable dread now mingled there, as Huo Bai’s demise proved Wu Long meant business. He knew their identities fully and would still end him.

Sparks of lightning danced around Wu Long’s hand, extending toward Tiezhu Bo’s head, only to freeze midway.

Wu Long’s gaze shifted upward to a newcomer who materialized right as he looked there. "You’re quite late, Gwi-... that guy over there must’ve called you over quite a while ago. Also, wasn’t it restricted to fly within the City limits?"

"What the hell is happening here?!", Go Ritian, the 8th level Essence Gathering Realm man hovering overhead, bellowed with frenzied eyes at the chaos below.

"Consequences", Wu Long sighed, his hand resuming its deadly course.

"Don’t!", the Iron Claw Group Chief lunged with a roar laced in fury and despair, but a searing flash halted him, forcing his right hand to shield his eyes while his left in the clawed gauntlet remained extended.

A streak of lightning bridged the heavens and earth, while the explosive thunderclap startled everyone nearby into leaping with fright.

Go Ritian descended slowly, his features twisted in utter despair as he stared at the charred, smoking corpse slumped sideways, with lingering arcs of electricity flickering around it. He collapsed to his knees before it, extending his faintly quivering hands yet stopping just short of contact.

Then his eyes blazed with fury and savagery as he raised them toward the man now positioned a short distance ahead.

"You will pay for this", he growled in a deep, rumbling tone.

"You’re not the one entitled to be angry here", Wu Long’s gaze and voice grew icy cold, since he could overlook the haughtiness of young masters, but not that of adults who ought to know better, "And if you are angry anyway, blame the fool you’re kneeling before for his stupidity; the price you demand, as you see, has already been settled. I advise you to take his remains and depart silently"

"Heh, don’t get cocky, youngster. You’re only alive because I can’t decide if delivering just your head to this boy’s father will lighten the penalty I face, or if bringing you alive lets him deal with you however he wishes"

"I said", Wu Long’s voice echoed right behind Go Ritian, very near as he bent forward slightly, "I advise you to leave quietly"

Nothing remained of Wu Long’s former position but crackling lightning arcs on a flat rock, mirrored in Go Ritian’s bulging eyes, while his entire left arm—sheathed in the gauntlet—thudded to the ground; the stump was cauterized, and the heavy metal sections of the Spiritual Treasure glowed red-hot as electric sparks burst across them.

Wu Long wielded a sword, its blade fully sheathed in a slim layer of radiance, with intermittent sparks exposing the packed lightning beneath.

"Aaargh!", the Chief of the Iron Claw Group clutched his shoulder with his right hand.

Wu Long circled around him en route to Nie Xiwang, lifting the sword for closer scrutiny—or rather, the lightning blade encasing it—with a contemplative look, "Hmm, I meant to scar the shoulder plate, not sever the arm... Cleaving through a 2nd-tier Profound Grade defensive treasure so cleanly... It might be a finer technique than I realized... Though I still question its effectiveness against a powered-up defense or clashing blades..."

He paused, pivoted back, and scanned the weaponry of the Iron Claw Group members held off by the golden swords, which filled their eyes with dread as they discarded their weapons and scrambled to yank off their gauntlets.

"Tsk, I didn’t even speak... I just glanced... What am I, some maniac?", he grumbled with mild disappointment over their extreme response, then shifted his attention to Go Ritian, "Now you’ve paid the price too. I’ll grant you one more chance to leave quietly. No third will come"

Fear now dominated the other man’s stare toward him, and he swiftly stored the corpse in his Spatial Ring.

Yet as his Spiritual Sense probed toward the severed arm, Wu Long’s lightning-wrapped sword speared through it, pinning it to the earth, "I said you paid the price"

Go Ritian raised no objection, promptly ordering the surviving Iron Claw Group members to fall back and fleeing with them, only then spotting Ko Gunwen in the disorder; the latter gaped at the scorched patch where Tiezhu Bo had been struck.

’I... was lucky’, he reflected, grasping that it could easily have been him.