Chapter 123: Don't Go Too Far

The time spent with Shentu Litian was unexpectedly short, amounting to just over ten minutes. Qin Anle was immensely curious about how his older brother had returned so soon after leaving, but Qin Anyi obviously couldn't tell him much, brushing him off with a few casual lies.

Lying on his bed, Qin Anyi’s thoughts drifted uncontrollably to Shentu Litian's words. The message delivered by the White Tiger General held great significance for him. At the very least, it clarified a few critical points. First, Wang Yiran’s father was not inherently opposed to their relationship. As long as Wang Yiran consented or desired it, the General would never stand in their way. Second, this matter had clearly triggered a massive backlash within Wang Yiran’s family. Her desperate attempts to break off her engagement with Yi Qiu ran directly counter to the family's interests. Despite her father’s lofty status within the clan, he could not act unilaterally against the collective will of the family, even when it involved his own daughter. That was why he had sent Shentu Litian to tell Qin Anyi not to limit his perspective to himself alone; if he wanted to be with Wang Yiran without obstacles, he needed to build his own power.

Qin Anyi had absolutely no clue where to start. The only potential lead was Wei Dong, yet the Glory Dragon Riders strictly prohibited any contact with government officials. Nevertheless, Qin Anyi felt no resentment toward this. Concepts like family influence and marrying into a family of equal status were deeply ingrained in the bones of everyone in this country. Regardless of wealth or poverty, almost everyone followed this pattern when choosing a partner. This was especially true for high-ranking, powerful families, which tended to hold onto these old-fashioned, often pathological, rules with obsessive persistence. Collateral descendants might have a bit more freedom due to their low status, but for direct descendants, almost every decision had to align with the family's wishes. This was the sacrifice that true scions of power had to make in exchange for the lavish material life they enjoyed from birth—a luxury ordinary people could never imagine.

In this world, relative fairness and freedom only existed under specific ideologies. Anyone who truly sought self-actualization and attempted to challenge the rules had been swept away in the long river of history.

Wang Yiran was undoubtedly a direct descendant, and likely one of the most important ones in her family. Qin Anyi even suspected that, if his intuition was correct, her father might well be the head of their family for this generation. Since this family was entirely dependent on the Glory Dragon Riders, her father must be one of the top figures within the organization. Although he hadn't truly entered the Dragon Riders yet, Qin Anyi could surmise that their military ranks were vastly different from those of the regular army, both in terms of authority and symbolic meaning. At the very least, he suspected that promotion within the Dragon Riders was tied to strength; one had to reach a certain level of power to attain a corresponding rank.

It was truly a long and arduous road ahead. As he drifted into a deep sleep, the more difficult the path ahead seemed, the more he craved power and the more determined he became.

Beyond the desire for strength, there was the pressure Shentu Litian had exerted upon him. That was the aura of a true warrior who had killed; a man whose hands were stained with blood. Otherwise, mere exposure to his presence wouldn't have made Qin Anyi feel suffocated. Qin Anyi was certain that even if he possessed equal strength to Shentu, in a life-or-death struggle, he would be the one to die. The other man had faced death, while he had not. This was a critical weakness; in Shentu’s eyes, he was likely still just a novice playing at combat.

With the seven-day National Day holiday approaching, Qin Anyi planned to use the time for further training, hoping to ignite his potential through the crucible of life and death. This training would have to be done alone; he couldn't take Wang Yiran, as she was still at the foundation-building stage. He had a destination in mind, but he hadn't discussed it with her yet. He needed to consult Wang Yiran and get her permission—after all, he was still her personal coach and was being paid by her; he had to respect his employer’s opinion. Besides, setting aside the professional relationship... one should naturally inform his woman before setting off on a long journey, he thought narcissistically, a smirk forming on his lips.

He had just boarded the bus and dropped a coin into the box. The bus was packed solid. A few people squeezed near the door noticed Qin Anyi’s strange smile and felt a subconscious shiver, pressing further inward and inadvertently leaving him a bit of breathing room. Qin Anyi was taken aback, noticing the fear in their eyes. He couldn't help but wonder, "I'm not that ugly, am I?" He touched his face, feeling completely baffled.

It was a twelve-stop ride from his rented apartment to Wang Yiran’s home, passing through the busiest parts of the city, so the bus was always crowded. As he stood there, bored, his peripheral vision caught a mediocre-looking young man. What caught his attention wasn't the man's face, but the small knife in his hand, which was silently slicing open the purse of a girl standing in front of him. His other hand was wandering over the girl’s buttocks. The girl tried to push the man’s hand away but was too afraid to make a scene, so her efforts were ineffective. The young man was clearly using this distraction to facilitate his theft.

"Damn... that’s some nerve," Qin Anyi thought with a strange expression. "Thievery and molestation all at once?"

Thinking was one thing, but his actions were swift. Qin Anyi easily pushed past the people standing nearby, grabbed the young man’s wrist—the one holding the knife—and said calmly, "Friend, pick one or the