Chapter 157 This guy wants to eat me!

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Xiao Yang controlled the White Tiger statue to assume its current form.

Although the appearance and size of the statue had changed, its aura remained utterly unaltered.

It was still a hundred-foot-tall martial arts statue.

Moreover, this was a tiger saint; ordinary tiger-type martial arts statues dared not even twitch a muscle in its presence, let alone fight.

Such was the exact predicament Gong Tianxing found himself in at this moment.

Every single millimeter of his body felt as though a two-hundred-pound fat man was breakdancing upon it.

This rendered Gong Tianxing entirely incapable of moving even a fraction of an inch.

He could only watch helplessly as Xiao Yang walked toward him.

"You little punk, make sure you keep your eyes wide open from now on."

With that, Xiao Yang raised his fist and subjected Gong Tianxing to a fierce beating.

Even when Gong Tianxing curled up into a ball on the ground, Xiao Yang showed no intention of letting up.

Punches and kicks rained down relentlessly.

Right now, Xiao Yang did not look like he was engaged in a duel; he resembled nothing so much as a common street thug in a brawl.

He used every single vicious and underhanded trick in the book.

Beaten to the point where he could no longer stand, an ordinary person would have surrendered long ago.

However, Gong Tianxing was clearly made of sterner stuff. He gritted his teeth and endured stubbornly, refusing to utter a word of concession.

His entire posture screamed: even if you beat me to death today, you will never get me to admit defeat.

This actually earned a measure of Xiao Yang's admiration.

And so, Xiao Yang increased the force behind his blows even further.

He punched and kicked with renewed enthusiasm.

"Ah! You can't beat my spirit, I will not lose!"

Gong Tianxing roared through clenched teeth.

"Come on! Keep going, don't stop!"

The Profound Ice White Tiger raised its head for a brief glance.

Then it went back to napping on the table.

"Youngsters nowadays... completely ignorant of our young master's methods. They'll be begging for mercy in a moment."

Muttering under its breath,

it curled back up on the table and fell fast asleep.

The beating continued for a full half-hour.

Gong Tianxing still refused to surrender, which caused Xiao Yang to knit his brows slightly.

Mind you, had he used his full strength, a single slap from him could have obliterated this fellow.

However, this was his own establishment after all, and shedding blood was considered inauspicious.

Therefore, he had been holding back all this time.

He had only inflicted superficial injuries on Gong Tianxing, leaving his bones and meridians completely intact.

"It seems you genuinely wish to die."

Since that was the case, he would no longer hold back.

As he spoke, his internal Qi rapidly condensed in his palm.

"Gulp!"

Looking at that palm-sized orb of internal Qi, Gong Tianxing had a chilling certainty that if it struck his body, he would die.

"Are you certain you won't surrender? If not, I'm going to strike."

"With a single blow from this palm, I doubt even a complete corpse will be left of you."

Xiao Yang lowered his head and uttered these words.

Hearing this, Gong Tianxing's body trembled.

He was clearly terrified.

In all nineteen years of his life, Gong Tianxing had always been the one administering brutal beatings to others; today, the tables had completely turned.

This left him feeling somewhat unbalanced in his heart.

It was precisely this sense of grievance that had made him grit his teeth and hold on until now.

At this very moment, he was still harboring fantasies of turning the tables.

Yet if this continued, he truly might be beaten to death.

Furthermore, he had snuck out from his family clan to wander the world this time; if he were to die here, not a single soul would be left to avenge him.

The arrogance in his heart was finally defeated by the sheer terror of death.

"Fine, I surrender."

At last, Gong Tianxing spoke in a voice devoid of strength.

The moment he finished speaking, his entire body went limp, as if every tendon and bone had been extracted, and he collapsed weakly onto the floor.

He stared blankly up at the rafters overhead.

He could not comprehend why a mere trash-tier White Tiger statue possessed the terrifying might to suppress his Black Tiger King to the point of utter immobility.

He could not understand it, nor could his mind process it.

"Hey! Stop playing dead, hand over the money and get lost."

Seeing that the other party was taking their sweet time paying, Xiao Yang reached out and gave him a prod with his foot.

Gong Tianxing hoisted himself up from the ground and cast a glance at Xiao Yang.

A complex whirlwind of emotions raged within his heart.

To think that he, a proud paragon of his generation, had been defeated by someone so utterly obsessed with money—it was humiliating just to speak of it.

In an instant, Gong Tianxing felt as though the path of cultivation had lost all meaning.

"Here is your money."

Pulling out eight million taels of gold notes, he tossed them to Xiao Yang, then trudged desolately toward the exit.

Xiao Yang stood on ceremony, reaching out to catch and pocket the notes immediately.

He glanced after the retreating figure and said nothing more.

Even if the fellow had plunged into self-doubt and depression, it had not the slightest shred to do with him.

"The annoying pest is finally gone. Come, Junior Sister, give me a hug."

Xiao Yang said with an amiable smile.

However, Zhou Yan merely gazed in the direction where Gong Tianxing had departed.

"Senior Brother, couldn't you have gone a bit easier on him? That young master's mental state has clearly been shattered by your beating."

Although Zhou Yan had never been fond of Gong Tianxing, the fellow came by every single day yet had never once crossed the line.

In the eyes of outsiders, he was the epitome of a refined young gentleman.

Xiao Yang glanced in that direction once more.

Then he coldly uttered:

"Junior Sister, a person like that isn't even fit to practice martial arts. Victory and defeat are common occurrences in the military strategist's art; if a single failure is enough to shatter his mental fortitude, then no matter how much further he cultivates, he will never amount to anything more than a good-for-nothing."

His voice was not loud, yet it carried outward.

It happened to reach the ears of Gong Tianxing as well.

The youth's body shuddered violently.

Yet he did not stop, continuing his weary trudge into the distance.

At that exact moment, a thunderous roar cracked across the sky.

A flash of lightning illuminated the heavens.

Immediately following came a torrential downpour. Even so, Gong Tianxing pressed on at a slow, dragging pace.

He allowed the cascading rain to drench his battered body entirely.

Right then, two figures materialized within the rainy night.

They were sprinting desperately toward the Wealth Gathering Tower.

Without hesitation, they burst through the doors.

At that very instant, the Profound Ice White Tiger snapped its eyes wide open.

Its gaze locked onto the giant rooster that had just charged inside.

A flash of delight crossed its eyes.

"Such a plump rooster, I'm in for a culinary treat today."

As it spoke, drool began to pool in its mouth.

Almost simultaneously, it sprang forward, pouncing directly toward Cocklord.

"Cluck-cluck-cluck!"

Cocklord was startled out of its wits. It attempted to dodge, but the Profound Ice White Tiger was simply too fast, pinning it flat to the floor in an instant.

Cocklord froze in place.

For a moment, its brain refused to process the situation—in this territory of its own, someone actually dared to pin it to the ground.

This was utterly intolerable!

It had to fight back.

Cocklord mustered all its strength, desperately trying to flip over the white feline pinning it down.

Yet it quickly made a startling discovery: no matter how hard it exerted itself, it could not budge those seemingly tender claws in the slightest.

This drove Cocklord into a panic.

"Cluck-cluck-cluck!"

It let out two furious squawks.

Seeing its boss being bullied, the Shadow Leopard Demon charged forward immediately, attempting to rescue its big brother.

"Hmph!"

The Profound Ice White Tiger raised its head slightly.

It glared fiercely!

In an instant, the Shadow Leopard Demon felt its legs turn to jelly, and it collapsed limply onto the floor.

Its eyes widened in profound, unadulterated terror.

With its boss having folded in a single exchange, Cocklord let out a couple of exasperated clucks, looking as though it was silently berating its lackey for being such a useless coward.

"Hehe! Plump and succulent, the meat must taste fantastic."

A droplet of drool from the Profound Ice White Tiger landed squarely on Cocklord's feathers.

This caused Cocklord's entire body to shiver.

This monster actually wants to eat me!

In an instant, the entire rooster flared up with incandescent rage.

A surge of hidden power began to accumulate deep within its body, on the verge of erupting at any second.

The Profound Ice White Tiger lowered its head in mild surprise.

"You little chicken, you're actually quite interesting."

It mocked with a cheerful grin.

Those words grated on Cocklord's ears like the ultimate insult, pushing it past its breaking point.

"Cluck-cluck-cluck!"

It let out a furious, ringing cry.

Immediately afterward, its entire body seemed to ignite, and a terrifying wave of scorching heat surged outward from within.

In the blink of an eye, it enveloped the Profound Ice White Tiger completely.

"Oh? You can even breathe fire? Interesting, truly interesting."

As it spoke, the tiger exhaled a wisp of chilling frost. In an instant, Cocklord, who had been radiating such a formidable aura moments before, withered completely.

It looked as though it had suffered a devastating blow to its morale.

"Little chicken, stop making futile struggles. Your ultimate destination is my belly."

The Profound Ice White Tiger chuckled mischievously.

It opened its jaws wide and lunged toward Cocklord's neck.