CHAPTER 1523: CHAPTER 1575: MERCENARY SHOWDOWN

The life of the rich, Li Yifei stood with his hands behind his back and automatically moved to the back. This was where the bodyguards and mercenaries stayed, almost all with faces from Europe and America, or black guys, each one muscular and broad-shouldered. Li Yifei was already strong enough, but in front of these people, he still seemed rather ’small’.

Of course, if it really came down to a fight, all these people together wouldn’t be enough for Li Yifei to handle with one hand, so being big and strong isn’t necessarily useful.

In the eyes of these people, Li Yifei seemed like an extra sheep among a pack of wolves, so the looks they gave him were somewhat unfriendly.

Li Yifei didn’t act particularly aggressive; regarding these people’s unfriendly gazes, he merely smiled faintly, squinting his eyes as he watched the group of princes and royal members exchanging pleasantries in the distance.

While Li Yifei remained low-key, someone deliberately came to cause trouble. A big black guy, arms crossed, bumped Li Yifei with his shoulder, saying with a mischievous grin, "Hey, yellow-skinned monkey, which unit are you from?"

The big black guy used some force when he bumped Li Yifei, seemingly intending to knock him away and embarrass him. But just as his shoulder made contact with Li Yifei, Li Yifei’s body vibrated rapidly with a slight sway. He actively bumped back into the big guy, making it still seem like the big guy was hitting Li Yifei from an outsider’s perspective.

A massive rebound force hit the big guy, with a thud. The big guy felt like he had slammed into a steel wall; half of his body instantly went numb. He staggered back and fell to the ground, clutching his shoulder and howling in pain.

Li Yifei looked at the big guy with a bewildered face, as if he didn’t understand what had just happened, appearing so innocent.

The surrounding mercenaries and bodyguards were somewhat stunned, and those who were laughing the loudest quickly sobered up. These hulking killing machines couldn’t possibly believe that the big guy had just made a mistake himself and fell; it had to be this yellow-skinned East Asian playing tricks.

"Kid, you’re good. We’ll meet again later." Said a white strongman who helped pull the big guy up and threatened Li Yifei.

Li Yifei chuckled, saying, "Take care, I won’t see you out."

The white strongman dragged the big guy away, but before they left, the big guy gave Li Yifei a venomous glare.

These people were hired by the princes and dukes to participate in the upcoming competition. Everyone thought they should be the strongest, so none of them respected each other, let alone thought they were worse than anyone else.

"What happened?" Sashar asked, walking over when he heard the noise.

Li Yifei shook his head, saying, "Nothing."

"You guys!" Sashar vaguely heard something, glanced around at the people, and said, "This is my friend, show some respect."

"Haha, Your Highness, we didn’t show him any disrespect."

"Yeah, but I’m hired by Prince Chahar, so you might not be able to control me unless your offer is higher than his."

"Kuhl, you bastard, this is called taking advantage. Daring to threaten a prince, I think you’ve had enough of living."

A group of mercenaries started clamoring, and Sashar glared, cursing these damned guys in his heart, then said to Li Yifei, "Hawk, come with me. Don’t bother with these big dummies, aside from fighting and shooting, they can’t do anything else."

Li Yifei shook his head, saying, "It’s fine, Your Highness, you go ahead, I’m good here."

Staying among these blockheads, for a moment, Li Yifei seemed to return to the ring of the special forces competition back in the day. Of course, even then, winning required a lot of effort from him and his comrades. Now, Li Yifei’s strength was worlds apart from before, he naturally wouldn’t regard these people as opponents.

Sashar stubbornly pulled Li Yifei away. A few incidents already made Sashar look at Li Yifei with admiration in his heart, and he naturally wouldn’t let him stay with these rough guys.

He brought him over to the group of princes, where some curiously looked at Li Yifei. Sashar introduced Li Yifei as a distinguished guest from Huaxia, his friend, a man who could train a great hawk called Falco rusticolus, and was also a real man unafraid of tigers and leopards.

One prince, looking at Li Yifei with amusement, laughed and said, "A real man? Sashar, when did you start liking this kind of style?"

Sashar’s eyes widened, pointing at the other party, said, "Berbis, if you keep talking like that, don’t blame me for forgetting our brotherhood."

"Haha, sorry, dear brother Sashar, you know I like to joke, no malice intended." Clearly less powerful than Sashar, Berbis laughed it off, half-jokingly apologizing.

After chatting for a while, everyone moved to the back of the villa, where a platform the size of half a basketball court had been set up.

A group of princes sat here. Some had eagles perched on their hands, some were leading tigers and leopards, some were surrounded by women with explosive figures, while others were styled in gold and silver like nouveau riche.

Li Yifei and Sashar sat together in silence, listening to the princes talk.

Some talked about women, others about luxury goods, and still others about business. Unfortunately, Li Yifei didn’t hear anything about the oil business he was interested in.

These bouts came with stakes. The smaller bets were a few million, tens of millions, the bigger ones over a hundred million. Li Yifei saw a prince directly bet a hundred million US dollars on his own guy to win, and others followed suit with their bets. Even the mercenaries and bodyguards would bet on themselves to win.

With one-to-one odds, Sashar happily placed a few bets. He had brought people to participate in the fights today as well, sitting on the sidelines now. Sashar pointed to a person who wasn’t tall, but whose muscles were bursting, and said to Li Yifei, "Hawk, what do you think of this guy?"

"Not bad, his gaze is quite sharp," Li Yifei glanced and said.

Sashar turned his head and said, "Is the gaze the only thing? The person I found today was a king soldier from the Cobra Squad, a personal combat tournament champion. Although he retired a few years ago, he’s been working as a mercenary, never letting his skills slide."

Li Yifei said, "Haha, he’s indeed better than many here. But just like a true eagle isn’t necessarily big in size, having more muscles doesn’t imply prowess, like those built like calves over there, they’re useless."

Sashar chuckled and said, "You’re right, but I remember you mentioning the Falco rusticolus, which is very big, and you said it’s the mightiest of eagles."

"Because that’s the Falco rusticolus, unique in the world, other eagles simply don’t have that power."

In a country whose national bird and totem, even currency, feature an eagle, saying that the Falco rusticolus is the strongest in front of a prince took unique courage. A few princes nearby who heard the statement glanced over at Li Yifei.

Everyone would bring some friends to watch the match, so seeing an East Asian face wasn’t strange, but the mention of eagles made the princes somewhat displeased.

By this time, the matches had begun, so the princes ignored Li Yifei. These were just warm-up matches; the highlights were later. Everyone could bet on each match, and winnings would be settled at the conclusion. The host of the betting was the owner of this private estate, a prince who was Sashar’s uncle.

Before each match, Sashar would ask Li Yifei who he favored. Sashar would bet accordingly to Li Yifei’s offhand picks and ended up winning four or five consecutive matches, earning a few tens of millions of US dollars.

Winning money was of course delightful. Sashar immediately had the most expensive wine brought over to treat the princes and noblemen present.

The princes were merry when they won, but sulky when they lost, while the mercenaries below were even more hyped, shouting loudly. Losers were resentful, while winners were exceedingly arrogant.

These people had turned into fighters, akin to the death-wrestling slaves of thousands of years ago in the Ancient Roman Colosseum. Li Yifei squinted as he watched the scene before him.

Soon over ten matches had passed. The princes all sent their strongest subordinates to compete. In the end, a few people fought to the last. A prince stood up and yelled at his subordinate, "Take down these people, and you can take a million US dollars!"

Another prince also stood up and shouted, "Damn it, if you win, take the million US dollars, and in addition, I’ll gift you a few beauties."

The princes whose subordinates were still in the ring shouted out their offers, inciting their men to fight with even more frenzy.

With financial incentives, these people went even madder, howling one by one.

The six remaining in the arena, just as Li Yifei expected, weren’t the tallest or brawniest, but during the fights, they launched extremely vicious attacks, all wielding real killing techniques. As a result, their opponents suffered miserably. The lucky ones merely broke legs or arms, the unlucky ones were beaten into vomiting blood uncontrollably, passing out.

The scene was bloody, yet within acceptable limits. Sashar’s subordinate stayed in the fray, as Li Yifei had predicted, effortlessly defeating his opponents.

Li Yifei saw the shadow of the Cobra in him — crisp and ruthless in every move.

Sashar waved his subordinate over and said, "You win, and I’ll give you freedom, a legal identity, but the premise is you must win."

The subordinate was clearly a bit stunned, but after a few seconds, he pursed his lips and nodded slightly, "Deal."

"Haha. Go on then." Sashar laughed triumphantly. After sitting down, he said to Li Yifei, "Do you know why he works for me?"

Li Yifei shook his head, prompting Sashar to continue, "He killed someone in the army because he developed war syndrome. After coming to his senses, he ran away and was found by my people. When his condition flares up, he goes wild, it’s terrifying."

Li Yifei furrowed his brow. Such a condition is indeed troublesome, he understood.