Volume Three: Turmoil at the Xuanwu Gate Chapter Sixty-Four: Disciplining the Profligate—The Dugu Clan Is Nothing!

After Li Mingyu finished speaking, he sized up the fop called Dugu Jie. The youth was eighteen or nineteen, dressed in splendid finery, with a face as fair as jade. Apart from a pair of peach-blossom eyes rimmed with blue from too many nights indulging in wine and women, he truly lived up to the Dugu family’s famed good looks, known for producing beauties.

At this moment, Dugu Jie was still shouting desperately, spewing venomous words one after another. Mingyu grabbed him by the collar with one hand and lifted him effortlessly off the ground.

Mingyu scolded, “Your mouth is filthier than a latrine, and your breath reeks of rot. Today, I’ll teach you how to speak like a human!” With that, he slapped Dugu Jie’s face, left and right, in a flurry of crisp blows.

After this round of slaps, the once dandyish playboy was reduced to a pig-headed wreck. Dugu Jie was utterly stunned, unable to believe that someone in the city of Chang’an, on his family’s own turf, would dare to beat a member of the Dugu family in broad daylight—especially after he had already revealed his identity. This was an open declaration of war against the Dugu family.

Such a blatant insult was a slap in the face to the Dugu clan. For a great family with a history spanning a hundred years, no matter the cause, if their kin suffered such humiliation and they failed to retaliate, they would lose all standing in Guanzhong. Among such aristocratic clans, reputation was everything. What would people say if the Dugu family, once humiliated in public, did not even dare to utter a protest? What right would they have to call themselves the leaders of the Guanzhong nobility?

Dugu Jie’s cheeks were swollen high, his eyes flashing with malice as he glared at Li Mingyu, as if looking at a dead man. He continued to shout, “Boy, just you wait! Don’t run if you’ve got guts! Soon you’ll regret ever being born!” Inwardly, he seethed with hatred—the more this boy humiliated the Dugu family now, the more merciless their future revenge would be. As a direct descendant of the Dugu clan, Dugu Jie had long been steeped in such lessons.

Especially his grandfather, Dugu Wudu, the current head of the family—a figure so domineering even the Emperor treated him with caution! All of Chang’an knew that, without the Dugu family’s full support in the past, the Li clan would never have become emperors, nor would they have even made it into Chang’an. Besides, the Guanzhong aristocrats always stood united. This upstart, whoever he was, had now offended so many great houses of Guanzhong—he’d be lucky if later he even had a whole corpse left to bury.

After doling out the slaps, Li Mingyu grew more and more repulsed by Dugu Jie’s glare. He thought to himself, “Damn, what’s he looking at me like that for? Does he really expect his precious family to take revenge for him? Bah! The Dugu family wronged my master, brought disaster upon my mistress and unborn junior brother, and I will personally settle every score with them. Today I’ll beat the young ones for interest, and when the old ones come, I’ll beat them too!”

With this thought, still unsatisfied, Li Mingyu flung Dugu Jie viciously to the ground with a loud thud. “The Dugu family? Rubbish! Others may fear you, but in my eyes you’re nothing! One day, I’ll lead a charge and trample the Dugu estate beneath my horse’s hooves, and make your family’s head kneel and beg for mercy before me!”

Just then, the rest of the young rakes scrambled to their feet. Some sent men to fetch reinforcements, some drew bows, others brandished blades; one, finding nothing suitable to hand, snatched a long spear from a city guard. Shouting loudly to embolden themselves, they charged at Li Mingyu.

Li Mingyu let out a cold laugh and shouted, “Excellent! None of you are getting away today!”

Little Black, his companion, could barely contain itself and growled low, ready to pounce. Li Mingyu held it back with a sweep of his arm. “Steady, Little Black! Watch the enemy and stir things up for me. However many come, I’ll take them all on myself today!”

With that, he strode forward boldly and kicked one of the lackeys square in the chest, sending him flying three or four feet. Then he seized the oncoming spear thrust at him by another dandy, and, with a roar and a surge of strength, swung both the spear and its wielder aside, directly into another youth wielding a blade.

Moving swiftly, Li Mingyu stepped forward with a powerful punch, driving his fist deep into a lackey’s chest. A knee to the gut followed, and then a final thunderous uppercut from his left hand. By the end of this combination, the lackey had fainted from the pain.

Li Mingyu’s senses were sharp. Hearing the “swish, swish” of arrows behind him, he ducked low, using the unconscious lackey as a shield. The arrows thudded into the man’s body with wet, sickening sounds, prompting a brief moan from the poor soul. Luckily, the bows these dandies used for hunting were ornamental at best, far weaker than true war bows. The arrows barely penetrated, and compared to Li Mingyu’s fists, were trivial wounds—though the lackey, bleeding heavily, was unlikely to survive.

Seizing the opportunity, Li Mingyu grabbed the lackey by both collar and ankle, hefted him overhead, and, with a shout, hurled him at the archers. He then launched himself after them with a burst of speed.

These young rakes were experts in debauchery and bullying the weak, but when it came to real fighting, they mostly relied on their servants. They were used to threatening with words and posturing, or at most brawling with fellow fops—not genuine combat.

Now, with a body flying at them, their wine-bloated reflexes were too slow to react, and soon they crashed together in a heap.

Li Mingyu was already upon them—a tiger among sheep. His fists swung left and right, flattening them to the ground like spinning tops.

In less than the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn, the dandies and all their lackeys were sprawled on the ground, groaning in pain.

Li Mingyu crouched down, flashing a row of pearly teeth in a grin. “Well? Get up! You all talk big—why so useless? I haven’t even warmed up yet!”

To their credit, these rakes were stubborn. Though beaten to a pulp, none begged for mercy. In truth, they had no choice—if they surrendered in public, their reputations among the city’s elite would be ruined. Among the ranks of the idle rich, status mattered most: great dandies led lesser ones, who in turn led the lowest. These men already stood atop Chang’an’s social pyramid; to beg for mercy now meant they could never again mingle among the city’s playboy circles. Like a tiger’s corpse that must not collapse, pride was all they had left.

At that moment, a servant who had run to the Yongzhou Prefecture for help returned, leading dozens of the city’s enforcers, each armed with chains and cudgels, under their captain’s command.

These enforcers were little more than low-ranking constables, tasked with maintaining order and investigating petty crimes—essentially the police force of the day. Street brawls like this fell squarely within their purview.

With their arrival, the rakes’ courage swelled once more. Some were already plotting how to humiliate Li Mingyu and make him regret ever being born.

One of them, his teeth knocked out by a punch, spat blood as he gnashed his ruined mouth. “Pah! You little bastard, enjoy your moment. Now the prefecture’s men are here, you’re finished!”

“Damn brat! You dared to hit me! I, Houmochen Hui, have never suffered such humiliation—not even my father dares lay a hand on me! I’ll skin you alive and set you alight with grass torches!”

Dugu Jie, sprawled on the ground, joined in the chorus. “I’ll carve you into a thousand pieces! May your whole family die! I’ll feed you to the dogs!”

Seeing their cruelty and disregard for life, Li Mingyu resolved to teach them a lesson. Even after being beaten, the group continued to hurl threats and obscenities, utterly unrepentant. This finally pushed Li Mingyu over the edge.

He chuckled coldly. “You lot never learn, do you? Today I’ll give you a lesson you’ll never forget!” With that, he picked up one of the dandies’ sabers from the ground, walked over to the group, placed his foot on their heads, and drew the blade across—blood spattered, and with a heart-rending scream, one of them lost an ear.