Chapter 23 Walk Away
48 Pearls
Mark didn’t even have the chance to finish his plea before Grace interrupted him. Pointing at him, she turned to the guards behind her and commanded, “Break all his limbs. Let him spend the rest of his life in a hospital!”
Her tone left no room for negotiation.
“No!” Mark let out a desperate scream, stumbling back as if he’d lost his mind. He howled, “Ms. Nolan, you can’t do this! You’re mistaken! You’re supposed to save me! This is the Nolans. repaying a favor owed to my family… Ms. Nolan, please don’t!”
His cries were shrill and pitiful, echoing through the hall.
“If I tell my grandfather that you provoked Mr. Howell, you’d be dead. Do you believe me? Not just you your entire family would be wiped out!” Grace cast Mark a cold glance. “Do you even realize who you’ve crossed? How ignorant.”
Compared to the favor the Nolans owed Ryan, the one they owed the Eatons was insignificant.
“Uh…” Axel, Thomas, and Cindy stood frozen in shock.
They couldn’t wrap their heads around the fact that Grace had addressed Ryan as “Mr. Howell.” It was utterly incomprehensible.
They were dying to know what Ryan had gone through over the past three years to become. someone who now seemed almost godlike.
In the blink of an eye, one of Grace’s guards had stepped up to Mark.
Then…
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The young man’s fists came down brutally, smashing into Mark’s joints.
It was utterly savage.
Mark’s limbs were crushed into a bloody mess, his bones shattered and mangled with flesh, forming a horrific sight.
The excruciating pain caused Mark to pass out instantly, his breathing faint. He was a pitiful wreck.
The gruesome scene left many in the hall petrified.
Joel looks like you’re disappointed,” Ryan said, smiling as he turned to Joel.
ני1
Chapter 23 Walk Away
He had been scared to death.
48 Pearls
The experience of being plunged from heaven to hell had shattered his spirit, the despair so overwhelming that it tore his heart apart.
Even in death. Joel’s wide–open eyes were filled with indescribable fear and despair.
“To think he’d die of fright. What a weakling.” Ryan scoffed coldly.
“Mr. Howell, Grace began earnestly. “the last time you left Aetheria in a hurry, I didn’t get the chance to invite you for a meal. Would you do me the honor today?”
If Aetheria’s elite youth had witnessed this scene, they would have been green with envy.
Grace, who had always kept her distance from men, was actually inviting someone to dinner.
“Sure.” Ryan replied, not refusing. He found Grace intriguing.
It wasn’t just her stunning beauty and top–tier demeanor; he was also curious about the fortuitous encounters she must have experienced over the past year.
Others couldn’t tell, but Ryan could see that Grace had already reached the Grandmaster Realm.
Although she was still at the early stage, the fact that she was the same age as Ryan–just 22–and had already achieved such a level was rare, even in places like Shadowcrest Mountain.
More importantly, when Ryan had last met Grace a year ago while treating Elis, she had only been in the mid–stage of the Energy Cultivation Realm.
In just a year, she had advanced from mid–stage Energy Cultivation to early–stage Grandmaster. Such rapid progress was extraordinary.
It was impossible for her not to have had some exceptional encounters.
“Ryan, I… Abigail spoke up at that moment.
Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at Ryan as if she had countless things to say but couldn’t find the words.
Ryan cut her off. “Ms. Xander, you can just call me Ryan.”
His tone was polite but distant.
Abigail’s tears flowed freely, streaming down her face.
“Ms. Nolan, this way, please,” Ryan said, ignoring Abigail’s grief as he stepped down from the platform and gestured toward Grace.
+8 Pearls
Chapter 23 Walk Away
Under the gaze of everyone in the hall, Ryan and Grace were about to leave.
But just as they were about to step out…
“Where do you think you’re going? You think you can just walk away after wiping out the Kanes?” A voice, cold and domineering, rang out like an explosion.
From outside the hall, three young men strode in.
Each wore black combat gear made from denim–like material, and their foreheads were marked with skull tattoos.
Their arms, waists, and legs were strapped with gleaming, blood–stained weapons that radiated a menacing aura.
