"You're right," Zhao Manyan said, stopping short. "It's just that I'm worried about my brother."
But soon, he shook his head again: "Sigh, never mind. We just won first place. I shouldn't be talking about such unhappy things with you."
"Alright, tell me when you're ready. If you need anything from your old man, just say the word." Seeing that Zhao Manyan had no intention of continuing, Mo Fan didn't press him.
Anyway, this scoundrel isn't going to die.
"I'll walk around here by myself. I'll tell you in detail once I've thought it through," Zhao Manyan nodded.
At this moment, he didn't even care that Mo Fan was taking advantage of him.
In front of the seawall, Zhao Manyan was still agonizing over something. The sky had completely darkened, and the lights of Venice's many islands glowed in the distance, while some small islands lay silent in the night, as if they didn't exist.
A couple walked towards him. The man was in his thirties or forties, with a scar on his forehead and a dark complexion. He held the woman beside him tightly, his smile wide, seemingly very content with their relationship, like a young man deeply in love.
The woman was also in her thirties, with an ordinary appearance that Zhao Manyan would usually not even glance at. She maintained a shy smile, her eyes darting as she secretly sized up Zhao Manyan.
"Friend, could you help us take a picture?" the man asked, handing over a camera.
"Okay." Normally, Zhao Manyan would arrogantly walk between the two, as he believed he was the only one who should flaunt affection, not the other way around. But today, he was in a low mood, so he decided to do a good deed, seeing it as accumulating blessings for his dying father.
As Zhao Manyan reached out to take the camera, the dark-faced man's smile suddenly became extremely impure.
His eyes instantly revealed killing intent. A long, eight-legged poisonous snake slithered out from the man's sleeve, viciously coiling around Zhao Manyan's wrist, then biting his arm fiercely!
Zhao Manyan didn't feel much pain from the bite, but his blood, as if frozen, rapidly spread throughout his body from his arm!
"You!" Zhao Manyan cried out in alarm, hastily casting a defensive spell.
The Holy Shield Blessing was about to be completed, when Zhao Manyan suddenly felt his mind go blank, just like being dead drunk yesterday.
The last star-track broke, and Zhao Manyan's defense couldn't be cast in time. The poison invaded his body too quickly, not only paralyzing him completely but also causing his mind to become chaotic!
"Who are you people?!" Zhao Manyan could still speak and immediately demanded loudly.
"Why ask so many questions? Isn't it better to die without knowing?" The plain-looking woman chuckled eerily. She slowly drew an extremely long, slender poisonous needle from her palm.
The poisonous needle was the length of a short sword, clearly a very insidious magic tool, similar to Guan Yu's arm gauntlet spike. Such magic tools are usually wielded by assassin-type mages. While they might not be very effective against magical beasts, they are lethal killers against mages!
"Who sent you?!" Zhao Manyan's face was filled with rage, his eyes practically spitting flames.
However, professional killers are clearly straightforward and not talkative.
The female assassin smiled coldly, sending the poisonous needle cleanly and efficiently towards Zhao Manyan's heart.
The poisonous needle easily pierced Zhao Manyan's skin, quickly embedding itself into his muscle, and would soon reach his heart. Just then, a golden light shone intensely. An inconspicuous necklace on Zhao Manyan's neck activated on its own, its strong golden light forcing the two assassins back, and the poisonous needle could no longer penetrate even a fraction of an inch.
"As expected of a rich young master, to possess such a treasure stronger than the venice ring. But what's the point of this dying struggle?" The female assassin continued to smile, not surprised at all.
After all, he was the beloved son of the richest man in Great Xia; it would be strange if he didn't have some treasures on him.
But in this place, even if Zhao Manyan had a life-saving treasure, what good would it do? How long could he last?
The outcome would be the same.
Zhao Manyan knew his life was short, but he was unwilling and couldn't believe it!
"Zhao Youqian, get out here! It must be you, it must be you!!" Suddenly, Zhao Manyan roared, his face beginning to turn black and veins bulging due to the poison.
However, no one paid him any mind. Zhao Manyan then continued to rage: "Zhao Youqian! You have the guts to kill me, but not the guts to see me one last time?!"
Although he couldn't be too sure, he had a feeling that his brother was here.
Sure enough, from behind an old tree not far away, a man completely wrapped up emerged.
This person had even wrapped his hair, revealing only his eyes, being so cautious that he wouldn't allow anyone to see even a bit of his appearance.
The golden radiance could not be broken through for a while, but Zhao Manyan was completely isolated and helpless. Two top assassins had used such methods to send countless people to their graves. Young, top-tier mages like Zhao Manyan were like children before them, without any power to fight back.
"Then I'll send you on your way," the fully wrapped man said in a chilling tone.
Looking at the approaching figure, Zhao Manyan felt a chill throughout his body, and his heart felt as if it had been pierced back and forth by a poisonous needle.
He knew he couldn't escape, but deep down, Zhao Manyan truly refused to believe it was him. He would rather believe that he had offended others in his past dissolute life.
After all, they were brothers. Zhao Manyan had considered this at one point, and not long ago, he had wanted to tell Mo Fan about it. He had realized that Zhao Youqian was a person who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals, but the bond of brotherhood made Zhao Manyan eventually shake his head and dismiss the thought.
In fact, it wasn't that Zhao Manyan was naive. Such a thing, if it happened to anyone, would probably be hard to believe. After all, Zhao Youqian and he were biological brothers, and he had never intended to compete with him for anything.
So, it was hard for him to imagine that Zhao Youqian would attack him.
Zhao Manyan looked at Zhao Youqian with a ashen face, angrily saying, "Do you really have no humanity at all?"
"."
Zhao Youqian also poured out all his grievances at once!
As the eldest son since childhood, he was constantly restricted by their father, learning various languages, finance, how to speak to businessmen and how to speak to greedy people, and how much money he earned for their family, and so on.
Then, look at Zhao Manyan.
Since birth, he had enjoyed all the family's conveniences, doing nothing but spending money and chasing women.
But what was the result?
When the old man was about to kick the bucket, he actually became the second-in-command, but Zhao Manyan, this second-generation wastrel, became the heir?
How could Zhao Youqian accept that!
After hearing what Zhao Youqian said, Zhao Manyan actually felt he could understand.
Plus, he had already known that his elder brother was not a good person. After so many years, his mindset must have changed long ago, right?
Although he knew Zhao Youqian was ill-intentioned, Zhao Manyan still had no intention of competing with him.
But then again, whether he competed or not, to Zhao Youqian, he was still a threat.
And at this moment, Zhao Manyan seemed to have found peace, looking at Zhao Youqian and saying, "I will forgive you. After all, you are my brother."
"I didn't want to do this either," Zhao Youqian said, looking at Zhao Manyan, whether it was insincere or something else, he said a sentence.