Chapter 1 Leopard Fang

Night had fallen.

Under the shroud of dusk, Qingyuan City was ablaze with lights.

Qingyuan is under the jurisdiction of Yidong Province, located at the intersection of three provinces and cities, and is considered the largest city in the western part of Yidong Province. For hundreds of miles around, there are nothing but towering mountains; Qingyuan City is like a dazzling pearl in the night sky, shining with enchanting brilliance among the mountains.

Of course, it can't compare to a real metropolis.

As the undisputed "boss" of Qingyuan City, Ethan Brooks was no country bumpkin. He had been to many places and seen a lot of the world. The capital, Mingzhu, Jiangkou, Shancheng—these most prosperous cities in the country, Ethan Brooks had visited them all. They were indeed impressive, but Ethan Brooks didn't feel much. Because in those cities, he had no foundation, he was a nobody, and no one knew who he was. Only when he returned to Qingyuan City could Ethan Brooks regain that feeling of being the boss.

Now, Ethan Brooks was leaning over the railing of the second-floor corridor, a leopard fang pipe—his most beloved—clamped between his lips, looking utterly content. This leopard fang was something he had personally taken from the mouth of a hungry adult golden leopard he killed deep in the mountains years ago. Even after all these years, Ethan Brooks seemed to still sense a trace of that fierce leopard's ferocity from the pipe.

In Qingyuan City, Ethan Brooks truly had reason to be proud.

For example, the magnificent Qingyuan Grand Hotel beneath his feet, twelve stories tall, was the largest, most upscale, and most luxurious hotel in Qingyuan City. Night after night of revelry, day after day of extravagance. For the western mountainous region of Yidong, where the average annual income is less than two thousand yuan, the spending at Qingyuan Grand Hotel is simply unimaginable.

It was said that staying one night in the most luxurious suite at Qingyuan Grand Hotel would cost an ordinary person an entire year's income. If you wanted to indulge in anything else, even a year's income wouldn't be nearly enough.

Not to mention the mountain folk from deep in the hills—even the average office worker in Qingyuan City could only look up to the Qingyuan Grand Hotel, never daring to step inside. Those who could enter the Qingyuan Grand Hotel were all extraordinary people—either rich or powerful.

From this, one can see how much awe and admiration the people of Qingyuan have for the owner of this hotel, the big boss Ethan Brooks.

Of course, most people in Qingyuan were a bit puzzled as to how such a luxurious hotel could survive in such a remote mountain city. No one knew where those wealthy, gold-bedecked big shots who came and went every day actually came from.

They certainly weren't all from Qingyuan—at least, not entirely.

Qingyuan couldn't possibly have so many wealthy bosses.

The secret lay on the twelfth floor of the Qingyuan Grand Hotel.

Right beneath Ethan Brooks's feet.

The entire twelfth floor was a massive hall, covering over a thousand square meters.

Dozens of luxurious crystal chandeliers lit up the entire hall as if it were broad daylight.

There were quite a few people in the hall, too—counting the hotel staff, there must have been a hundred or two. With two hundred people spread out over a thousand square meters, it didn't feel crowded at all.

Ethan Brooks believed that among these guests, some might be even wealthier than he was—perhaps several times, even ten times richer.

These days, there are just too many people with money and power.

Ethan Brooks knew how vast the outside world was.

In real big cities like Jiangkou and Mingzhu, there might be more millionaires than the entire population of Qingyuan City.

Qingyuan City is the largest distribution center for Chinese medicinal herbs at the intersection of the three southwestern provinces and cities. More than half of the city's fiscal revenue depends on this herbal medicine market.

And the Qingyuan Grand Hotel is the most high-end venue for rare medicinal herb transactions.

Those who could come up to the twelfth-floor hall of the Qingyuan Grand Hotel to do business were no ordinary people. There were major herbal medicine merchants, powerful figures from the underworld, masters with extraordinary skills, and even government officials concealing their identities.

No matter who you were, as long as you had the qualifications to enter the Qingyuan Grand Hotel's trading hall, you were absolutely safe. Here, no one would check your background, no one would ask where your goods came from, and you didn't have to worry about flaunting your wealth.

Ethan Brooks and Edward Brooks absolutely guaranteed your safety.

A man is nothing without trust.

This was a truth Ethan Brooks had learned after years of mixing in the underworld. It was precisely because he understood this that Ethan Brooks could rise from a humble apprentice in a pharmacy to become the ruler of Qingyuan City's underworld, known as "Edward Brooks" in the jianghu, the head of the third external hall of the Gelaohui, a legendary figure among the brotherhood.

Throughout Yidong, Bashu, and Shancheng, any member of the brotherhood who saw Ethan Brooks would respectfully address him as "Seventh Master." Only the chief of the brotherhood in Shancheng, Samuel Clark, could give orders that Edward Brooks would heed.

In Qingyuan, no one could pose a real threat to Edward Brooks.

Only the big shots far away in Lingyan City, the provincial capital of Yidong, could make Ethan Brooks feel any awe.