First-Grade Kingdom.

The entire First-Grade Kingdom has already been completely bought out by Longyu Group, and those tycoons who used to live here were forced to move out by various means. Of course, they also got quite a lot in compensation; it was definitely not a losing deal.

Now, First-Grade Kingdom is under full surveillance.

Guards every three steps, sentries every five, the place heavily fortified.

Even all the security guards here have been replaced.

Inside the villa.

Qin Zhiyuan stared at Yang Chen and demanded, "Xiaochen, what are you doing? What happened?"

When he first saw Yang Chen leave with people, Qin Zhiyuan had already gotten worried.

Yang Chen comforted, "It’s nothing, just a little accident. You three go back to Ningchuan first, I’ll handle things here."

"No way!" Qin Zhiyuan glared and said, "You have to explain this to me clearly! Look at what era we’re living in now, and look at what those people you arranged are holding in their hands! Don’t think that just because you put them in security uniforms I won’t know what kind of people they are! These little punks only need to lift a foot and you think you can fool me? Say it! What exactly happened!"

Fu Zhou and Ruan Ling at the side also wore worried expressions.

"Xiaochen, what on earth happened? How did it get this serious?"

"Son, did you get yourself into some trouble? Are the family powers in Ancheng going to make a move on you?" Fu Zhou was still analyzing things fairly clearly.

Yang Chen sighed, looked at the three of them, and felt a bit helpless.

He originally didn’t want the three of them to know, to avoid making them worry.

But in order to prevent people from the various big families suddenly making a move, he immediately arranged for personnel to defend First-Grade Kingdom.

And facts proved his concern was right. By the time he arrived, Sun Yue had already finished her investigation: several groups of people had separately headed for First-Grade Kingdom and Longyu Group, and another group had gone to the construction site.

This made it clear that these family powers were already preparing to go after Yang Chen!

To prevent the director and the others from getting hurt, Yang Chen could only have his people bring weapons, which also exposed the level of danger in front of the director and the others.

"I..." Yang Chen hesitated for a moment, but still chose to tell them. After all, the matter was already right in front of them; he couldn’t keep hiding it, that would only make them even more worried.

"I won some things at the New City conference, and now it seems they’re unwilling to acknowledge it and even want to go back on it. To avoid their retaliation, I could only do this," Yang Chen said.

When Qin Zhiyuan heard this, he immediately widened his eyes and said, "They should honor their bets! That so-called New City conference of theirs was a gamble-fight to begin with, your dad already told me just now. They want to renege? I’ll call Old Zhuo for you right now, I’ll turn the tables on them!"

At Qin Zhiyuan’s overprotective reaction, Yang Chen could only smile bitterly and helplessly. Naturally he wouldn’t let him call Elder Zhuo; that would only make Elder Zhuo worried and put him in a tough spot.

Fu Zhou pondered for a moment and asked, "What did you win?"

Yang Chen hesitated and said, "I won the Wu family and the Ban family."

"The Wu family and the Ban family?" Fu Zhou frowned, "Then what was their stake?"

Yang Chen said, "It was... their families."

"What!" Fu Zhou’s eyes went wide as he looked at Yang Chen in disbelief. "You’re saying they used their own families as stakes and both lost to you?"

Seeing Fu Zhou’s shocked expression, Yang Chen gave a bitter nod.

"You used Longyu Group as the stake and gambled against them?" Fu Zhou asked.

Yang Chen nodded.

Fu Zhou’s whole expression changed, and he said worriedly, "You... you... were far too careless! Far too greedy!"

Ruan Ling also looked full of worry. "How could they possibly agree to that? They’ll definitely deny it, they might even..."

She didn’t finish, but everyone understood: in the face of such enormous interests, they would absolutely dare to kill and silence people!

And facts proved that these family powers were indeed doing just that.

"No, this won’t do!" Fu Zhou said in a deep voice. "Xiaochen, you send someone right away to tell them the bet is off! I can understand your eagerness for rapid development; for so many years I’ve always yearned for rapid development too. But you absolutely can’t be greedy! In front of such huge interests, they’ll dare to do anything! Now that you’ve won, there’s no way they’ll hand over their families to you! To protect their families, they’ll absolutely do whatever it takes. These families have existed for so long, they definitely have all kinds of methods and foundations. How long have we even been in Ancheng? We’re no match for them at all! For safety’s sake, it’s better to cancel!"

Fu Zhou really did see things very clearly, but... are things really like that?

Yang Chen asked, "If I cancel, will they really just let it go?"

Fu Zhou was stunned and fell silent.

What’s done is done; going back on it now is impossible.

Right now, in the eyes of the many families in Ancheng, Yang Chen and Longyu Group are a ferocious tiger—a man-eating tiger that doesn’t spit out the bones! Even if the tiger doesn’t eat them for now, swallowing them is only a matter of time! They won’t easily let the tiger return to the mountain; since they’ve started, they’ll definitely see it through!

"Then come with us and leave! As long as the green hills remain, there will always be firewood to burn! After this storm passes, we’ll come back! We can earn these assets back again!" Fu Zhou said in a deep voice.

Yang Chen gave Fu Zhou a surprised look.

He hadn’t expected Fu Zhou to open his mouth and be willing to abandon the massive investments they’d poured into Ancheng; that’s not something an ordinary person can do. After all, Baisheng Real Estate has already invested over a hundred billion in Ancheng. If they walked away now, they wouldn’t even recover their costs. Even a huge group like Baisheng Real Estate would be badly hurt, possibly directly causing a cash-flow break and triggering an even bigger crisis.

Such an approach was no different from a warrior cutting off his own arm!

And yet Fu Zhou was willing to make this sacrifice for Yang Chen, which Yang Chen had not expected.

But Yang Chen still shook his head. "They still can’t do anything to me. I’m just having you leave temporarily for safety’s sake."

Fu Zhou frowned. "The enemies you’ve offended now are no longer just the Wu family and the Ban family, but the Nine Great Families! You think you can swallow the Wu and Ban families and the other families will just sit by and watch? Ancheng has always maintained this balance, and you’re suddenly swallowing two families and becoming the dominant one. How could they possibly stomach that!"

Zhang Yiran walked in, smiling. "Uncle, it’s not the Nine Great Families anymore. At least our Zhang family is standing on Brother Chen’s side."

"The Zhang family?" Fu Zhou froze, surprised. "The Zhang family among the Nine Great Families?"

"And the Xiang family!" Xiang Xingyu also walked in and said to Yang Chen, "All experts of the Xiang family above the Martial Arts Realm are already in position, awaiting your orders at any time!"