?
Beside him, Inoue also shouted loudly, "Liu Yang! Although you're number one on the Heaven Ranking, don't be too arrogant! My father is a naval captain of the Little Sun Empire! If you dare kill me, my father will spare no expense to take your life!"
The other two ability users also yelled, "If you dare kill us, you're disrespecting the Little Sun Empire! You'll be making an enemy of the entire Little Sun Empire!
With your strength alone, do you really think you can resist the entire Little Sun Empire? You're seeking death!
No matter how strong you are, you're just one person. I don't believe you can stand against an entire empire!
When that time comes, our empire will continuously send elites to assassinate you!
Don't think being number one on the Heaven Ranking makes you invincible. In this world, there are existences even stronger than ability users!
Those are ancient, unimaginable, powerful inherited races.
Even if you're number one on the Heaven Ranking, you'd be instantly killed!"
Hearing their words, a cold smile immediately appeared on Liu Yang's face.
"The Little Sun Empire? Has your Little Sun Empire ever considered that the moment you sent ability users into the Divine Dragon Empire and they appeared before me, you had already declared war on me?
Don't worry. They don't need to come. I'll go to the Little Sun Empire to find them myself."
After speaking, Liu Yang looked at Inoue and said, "Your father is a naval captain of the Little Sun Empire, right? Thanks for the reminder. When the time comes, I'll kill your captain father first!"
"You!" Inoue never expected Liu Yang to be so arrogant and audacious.
He had originally thought using his father's rank would intimidate the man, but instead, not only was Liu Yang unfazed, he even promised to kill his father first!
In that instant, Inoue felt a terrible premonition in his heart.
Could his words bring unimaginable disaster upon his father?
Liu Yang reached out and pinched Taozi's exquisite, smooth face, squeezing her tempting cherry lips into a pout as he asked:
"You're the strongest one here, so you must be their leader. Tell me your purpose for coming here, and maybe I'll give you a quick death."
Seeing Liu Yang's actions, Nakata became agitated again. "Let go of Captain Taozi! If you've got the guts, come at me!"
Nakata had harbored a secret crush on Taozi for a long time.
Unfortunately, because his strength fell short of hers, he had always felt inferior and never dared to confess.
Now, seeing the powerful, lofty Captain Taozi being pinched and humiliated by Liu Yang, Nakata wished he were dead.
He hated his own weakness.
He hated that he couldn't protect his goddess, Taozi.
This overwhelming helplessness turned his heart to ashes, plunging him into endless despair as he could only scream repeatedly from the side.
Liu Yang turned to look at the hysterical Nakata and said, "Oh? Looks like you're quite excited! Fine then, I'll ask you instead. As long as you're willing to tell the truth, maybe I'll let your Captain Taozi go.
If you lie to me, I'll violate this Taozi right in front of you, then chop off her fingers one by one, her toes one by one, and stuff them all down your throat!"
Nakata quickly said, "I'll talk! As long as you promise to let Captain Taozi go, I'll tell you everything!"
Hearing Nakata's words, Taozi immediately barked, "Nakata! What are you doing? Do you want to betray the empire?!"
"Captain! I just want to protect you! I can't protect the empire, I only want to protect you! Even if I have to trade my life for yours, I'm willing! To hell with the empire's grand cause, to hell with the samurai spirit-I don't care about any of it! I just want you to live!"
As Nakata spoke, tears streamed down his face. A burly, bearded man was crying like a helpless child.
This was the true nature of a simp!
No matter what country they were from, simps were all the same-the most spineless, weak-willed creatures in existence!
Liu Yang watched from the side with a look of utter contempt, then asked, "Can you talk now?"
Nakata asked, "Are you sure? If I talk, you'll really spare Captain Taozi?"
Liu Yang nodded. "I'm sure."
Nakata said, "Fine! I'll talk! We're all survivors sent by the Little Sun Empire. Our squad's specific mission is to search for your whereabouts-the Heaven Ranking's number one, Liu Yang.
Once we find you, we're supposed to report to the main unit immediately, and then all squads will unite to kill you together! Right now, there are 19 other search squads and one main unit operating within the Divine Dragon Empire!"
Liu Yang assumed a thoughtful expression, then asked, "Are all the search squads about as strong as yours? What about the main unit?"
Nakata said, "The search squads are indeed about as strong as us, but the main unit is entirely composed of Heaven Ranking ability users! Five whole Heaven Ranking experts ranked within the top 200!
The leader of the main unit is ranked in the top 10! Combined with the strength of the other 19 search squads, no matter how strong you are, you couldn't possibly be our match!"
Nakata had heard that the strength gap among Heaven Ranking ability users within the top 200 was actually minimal.
This was because, in the Little Sun Empire, an ability user ranked in the 100s had cleared the 10th floor of the stone monument, while their number one, General Yamada, had also cleared the 10th floor!
The difference in their rankings was merely due to clearance speed!
In other words, the 10th floor was already the upper limit for Heaven Ranking ability users!
They even assumed Liu Yang had only cleared the 10th floor, just slightly faster-perhaps only a minute faster than General Yamada.
How much of a gap could a tiny time difference really make?
As long as they were top-200 Heaven Ranking ability users, their overall combat power wasn't significantly different.
Furthermore, elemental counters existed between ability users.
For instance, if a fire-attribute ability user encountered a water-attribute ability user of similar strength, the fire user would be at a distinct disadvantage!
Unless the fire user was vastly superior, they couldn't overcome the attribute counter!
Therefore, even the number one on the Heaven Ranking wasn't invincible.
In the eyes of Nakata and his team, five top-200 Heaven Ranking combatants could easily take down the top ranker!
How could they ever imagine that Liu Yang was someone who had cleared 100 floors and still hadn't reached his limit?
If the difficulty increase for each floor was simply adding more zombies, Liu Yang could easily clear a thousand floors without breaking a sweat!
Liu Yang sneered, "A mere five Heaven Ranking ability users dare to come looking for trouble with me? You Little Sun Empire people are as arrogant as ever!"
With that, he patted Taozi's smooth cheek, hoisted her frozen-stiff body onto his shoulder, and walked toward the adjacent room.
Seeing this, Nakata panicked completely. He yelled in desperation, "Hey, what are you doing?! I told you everything I know! You should keep your promise and release Captain Taozi! Put her down right now!"
Liu Yang shook his head and said, "I have to admit, as detestable as you lot are, your captain is quite a beauty. Wouldn't it be a waste not to make good use of her?"
Nakata gnashed his teeth in fury. "Bastard! You dishonest coward! You promised that if I gave you the information, you'd let Captain Taozi go!"
Liu Yang sneered, "Heh, honesty? Do I need to keep my word to the likes of the Little Sun Empire? You just sit outside and listen carefully to how I ravage your captain!"
Nakata was driven to the brink of madness, screaming hysterically, "Scoundrel! Let Captain Taozi go! Kill me, torture me, do whatever you want to me! Just let Captain Taozi go!"
Liu Yang taunted, "Look at how pretty your Captain Taozi is, with such tender cheeks. If I grip her neck with one hand and slap her delicate face with the other, she'll probably cry for a long time, don't you think?
And look at her thighs-so pale, soft, and smooth. If I crack a belt across them, that crisp sound should echo throughout the whole house, shouldn't it? Hahaha!"
With a laugh, Liu Yang opened the door and carried Taozi inside.
"Ahhh! Nooo! Ahhhh!"
Behind him came Nakata's utter screams of despair.