THE SOVEREIGN GOD'S MORTAL VENGEANCE!

3.

"Where did a piece of trash like you get the nerve to babble like that! You're courting death!" A roaring wrath exploded at that very moment. The icy insults from a youth who usually kneeled to beg for mercy completely shattered what was left of the guards' patience.

SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

Two gusts of wind were whipped up by the swing of heavy wooden clubs as thick as an adult's arm. Their targets were clear: Lucas's head and shoulder. In the minds of the two guards, the very next second would be decorated with the sound of splintering bones and hysterical weeping from the bastard child, just as it had always been.

However, reality hit them far harder than the wood they swung.

CLACK! CLACK!

A heavy impact echoed, but it was not followed by screams of agony. The two thick wooden clubs came to a dead stop in midair, caught perfectly in place!

The eyes of both guards widened as big as saucers. The light from the trembling lantern illuminated an impossible sight: Lucas stood unmoving, stopping both thick wooden clubs with nothing more than his bare hands!

The grip of his thin, bruised fingers tightly encircled the ends of the wooden weapons, locking them fast like an eternal iron vise. Not a single tremor shook Lucas's arms. His pale face remained completely flat, devoid of both fear and pain.

"W-what...?" The guard with the mole swallowed with great difficulty. He tried to yank his club back, but the wood felt as if it were embedded in a bed of solid granite. It would not budge an inch!

The bald guard glared, channeling the full strength of his bulky muscles to force the weapon down, yet Lucas's arms did not yield by even a single millimeter!

"Is this all the strength two lapdogs of the Wine Family can muster?" Lucas's voice sounded eerily calm, yet its resonance crept down the spine of both guards like the icy touch of death itself.

Even though the Qi in his body was pitifully thin and had only managed to mend a few cracked bones, neutralizing a crude attack built on mere human force was far too easy for a former God Emperor who had mastered skills beyond the comprehension of ordinary mortals—or even formidable Cultivators. He utilized joint fulcrums and microscopic energy distribution to perfectly neutralize the entirety of the kinetic impact.

A cruel sneer spread across Lucas's dried-blood-stained face. His gaze blazed through the dark night.

"Have you two had your fill of swinging these fragile sticks?" Lucas whispered in a deeply intimidating tone.

"Now... it's my turn."

In that instant, dark memories belonging to Lucas flashed like lightning through the mind of the former God Emperor.

The image of this bald guard kicking his chest until he coughed up blood... The image of the guard with the mole whipping his back with a wooden club until his skin peeled away... Their booming, ecstatic laughter at the sound of young, helpless Lucas begging for mercy. Every single drop of that suffering was recorded with absolute perfection.

As Long Bai, a ruler renowned across the Nine Realms as the most vindictive entity in existence, he knew no mercy, let alone forgiveness. Retribution had to be paid in full—a thousandfold—using the exact same methods!

CRACK! CRACK!

With a single slight squeeze infused with a trace of microscopic Qi, the two thick wooden clubs—each the size of an adult's arm—fractured and shattered into pieces inside Lucas's bare hands!

"H-how is this possible?! Since when could he fight back like an expert combatant?!" the bald guard shrieked hysterically, his eyes bulging as he watched the hard teak wood crumble like fragile crackers.

Before their shock could subside, Lucas moved his foot.

BOOM!

A lightning-fast kick slammed brutally into the pit of the mole-faced guard's stomach! An agonizing, crushing sensation tore through his internal organs—the exact replica of the kicks that guard used to deliver to Lucas's chest every morning.

"GUAAGHH!" The guard with the mole vomited a torrent of blood and stomach contents. His large body flew backward, crashing into the room's wooden wall until it collapsed, before he finally crumpled onto the floor with shattered ribs.

"Y-you... H-how did you become so strong?!" The bald guard trembled violently. All the influence of alcohol in his head evaporated instantly, replaced by sheer, unadulterated terror. He scrambled to turn around and flee outside.

Yet, Lucas was far faster.

GRAB!

Lucas's thin hand darted out like a striking cobra, clamping tightly onto the back of the bald guard's neck before slamming him downward without a shred of pity!

SMASH!

The bald guard's face was slammed violently against the dusty wooden floor. His nose shattered instantly, splattering the floor with a burst of fresh blood.

"In the past... you loved smashing my head into the floor while laughing, didn't you?" Lucas whispered from above his back. His voice was flat and emotionless, yet saturated with a terrifying madness.

"M-mercy... Young Master Lucas, mercy! W-why are you being so cruel?! Hwaaaghh!" the bald guard screamed in agony, attempting to plead with a raspy voice choked with blood.

"Mercy? Cruel?" Lucas chuckled coldly. "From this moment on, those words do not exist in Lucas's vocabulary!"

SMASH! SMASH! SMASH!

Relentlessly, Lucas slammed the guard's head into the floor over and over, replicating every single strike this body had ever endured in the past. The sounds of agonizing groans and bone impacting wood shattered the quiet night inside the dilapidated room.

"ARGGGH! Y-young Master Edward, p-please help me!"

After beating the bald guard into unconsciousness, leaving him soaked in blood with a face no longer recognizable, Lucas turned his gaze toward the guard with the mole, who was squirming in pain in the corner of the room.

"Why are you cowering like a goat about to be slaughtered? Come on, show me your arrogance and pride once again!"

Stepping forward slowly, Lucas picked up a sharp splinter from the broken wooden club off the floor. His gaze was as cold as eternal ice, sweeping over the figures of the two guards lying helpless before him.

"Remember, this is just the interest on the debt..." Lucas muttered, wiping a stray drop of the servant's blood from his cheek.

BAAAAM! CRACKLE! CRAAACK!

"AAARGGHHHH! YO-YOU ARE TRULY A DEVIL, LUCAS!"