Qin Wanchuan was cradling his newly acquired Black Iron Podao, about to turn back toward the residence, when a shrill, piercing voice suddenly erupted from up ahead.

"The Qin family are liars! This sack isn't refined rice! It's sand! It's chaff and bran!"

The shout exploded among the crowd. A stocky, short man had somehow squeezed beside the grain cart, brandishing a slit sack. What spilled out was unmistakably ashen sand and coarse bran! He yelled while yanking the opening wider, displaying its contents to the surrounding crowd.

"What?!"

"Sand?!"

"The Qin family is fobbing us off with sand?!"

The crowd erupted in an uproar!

"Fake! It's all fake!"

"Take it! If we don't, we'll starve to death!"

"The Qin family's black-hearted! Smash their carts!"

There was more than one instigator. Several men with equally malicious glints in their eyes mixed in the crowd, shouting inflammatory words while charging at the grain carts. Their goal was clear: sow chaos and plunder the grain. Adding to the mayhem, local ruffians seized the chance to brandish clubs, attack the guards, and loot goods. The scene spiraled out of control in an instant!

"Protect the grain carts! Stop them! Someone is framing us!"

A Qin family guard roared hoarsely. He could see clearly that the slashed sack was cut at a tricky angle, obviously a deliberate act of sabotage to swap the contents. The guards fought furiously to hold their ground and maintain order, but faced with a mob several times their number and thugs attacking in the confusion, their defensive line was torn open in several places. People began clambering onto the carts, tearing at sacks with abandon. Rice poured down, driving the crowd even crazier.

"Ah—!"

A young girl's scream cut through the chaos with piercing sharpness! Qin Wanchuan's gaze shot through the surging human wall like a bolt of lightning!

Qin Yuxuan!

She had been swept away from her guards by the crowd's surge. Several brawny men, clearly not refugees, were closing in on her. One, with a scarred face, was reaching out a large, hairy hand straight for her arm. Another, wielding a short dagger and wearing a lewd expression, was also closing in. Qin Yuxuan was backed against a shuttered shop, with nowhere left to retreat. Her little face was white as paper; the shrewd gleam in her eyes had been replaced by sheer terror. She waved her arms frantically, her frame trembling.

"Little minx! Come with me!"

"Heh! Come play with us!"

"A daughter of the Qin family? Perfect—tie her up and trade her for gold!"

Qin Wanchuan tossed the Black Iron Podao in his arms directly to a stunned stall owner at the roadside. At the same instant, the power within him erupted with a roar!

Like a human cannonball, he plunged into the chaotic crowd with a blast of raw ferocity! The few drifters and ruffians directly in his path were sent flying sideways with agonized howls, as if struck by a rampaging rhinoceros!

His target was the three thugs encircling Qin Yuxuan! The first to bear the brunt was the scar-faced man reaching for her. Before he could react, a foul wind smacked his face; the corner of his eye just caught a black shadow as an iron-vice-like hand shot out, clamping precisely around his wrist!

Crack!

The hair-raising sound of splintering bone rang out! The scar-faced man's wrist bones were crushed to powder under Qin Wanchuan's five fingers! Agony forced an inhuman shriek from him!

Qin Wanchuan's movements flowed without the slightest pause. Using his left hand that had just pulverized the wrist, he slammed the man downward. Thud! A muffled boom, and the man didn't even grunt before passing out cold.

Simultaneously, Qin Wanchuan twisted his waist and pivoted, his right fist driving squarely into the chest of the dagger-wielding thug beside him.

"Pwah—!"

A dull, heavy impact! The lewd smirk on that thug's face froze instantly, his eyes bulging out. His entire chest visibly caved in! Without a single scream, a massive gush of black-red bloody froth mixed with viscera fragments erupted from his mouth! His body flew backward several zhang, crashed thunderously against an earthen wall across the street, then slid down limp, utterly silent!

The third thug, clutching a club, had just registered what was happening when his companion was blasted away like mud. His spirit fled in terror; he instinctively raised his club to strike. But Qin Wanchuan's right leg had already swept low with a mournful howl, a powerhouse kick slamming into his shin!

Crack!

"Puh!"

Bone splintering accompanied the muffled burst of flesh and blood! The thug's lower leg bent backward at a grotesque angle, a stark white shard of broken bone piercing through skin and trouser leg, exposed to the air! He let out a shriek so ghastly it barely sounded human. His body collapsed heavily to the ground, and he rolled and writhed in agony, clutching his shattered leg!

In the space of a lightning flash! The three vicious thugs who had surrounded Qin Yuxuan were, like ants trampled by a giant elephant, instantly rendered—one dead, two gravely injured!

Qin Wanchuan stood planted like a boulder before Qin Yuxuan, completely shielding her. His bare torso was speckled with a few flecks of blood, his skin gleaming faintly, radiating a suffocating, baleful murderous aura! He half-turned his head and glanced at Qin Yuxuan, who was still in shock, her small mouth agape. After confirming she was unharmed, his gaze slowly swept over the surrounding chaos-stricken crowd, who were now completely cowed into stillness.

The entire clamorous, riotous street seemed to have been struck by a mute button! Those surging toward the grain carts halted in their tracks, staring in terror at this man who had descended like a demon god. The local ruffians who had been looting in the confusion were scared out of their wits, stumbling backward, unable even to hold onto their clubs.

"Se-second... Brother?"

Qin Yuxuan, hiding behind Qin Wanchuan, spoke with a voice that mingled the trauma of a narrow escape with overwhelming shock. Her mind was completely blank. Was this still her taciturn second brother, the one she had always dismissed as a "mute gourd"?

Qin Wanchuan did not turn around, nor did he respond. His eyes swept across the terrified thugs and refugees, and finally settled on the second-floor window of a teahouse diagonally across the street. There, the Weiyuan Escort Agency's young master Zhao Pengfei and his companions were watching the scene with jaws agape, their teacups long since fallen and shattered on the floor.

The expression on Zhao Pengfei's face had gone from a spectator's amusement, to shock, and now to stark fear! When Qin Wanchuan's indifferent gaze landed on him, he felt a chill shoot from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head!

"Go... go! Get out of here!"

Zhao Pengfei's voice was dry and tight with panic. He spun around violently, no longer daring to look at that demonic figure below, and hurriedly fled the teahouse.

Qin Wanchuan's eyes lingered at the window for less than an instant before withdrawing indifferently. He half-turned his head and said to Qin Yuxuan behind him:

"Let's go home."

With that, he paid no more heed to the countless gazes of awe and fear around him. He went to retrieve his Black Iron Podao, then started walking in the direction of the Qin Residence. Qin Yuxuan broke into a trot to follow, not daring to lag half a step.

Qin Wanchuan. The Qin family's mute second young master. From this moment on, he gained a name that struck terror in all who heard it—

Fierce Tiger!