Chapter 63 : Chapter 63
Chapter 63. It Sure Is Lively Tonight
On the street.
“Stay sharp, all of you. We are about to switch shifts with Xu Yuan’s squad, so do not disgrace your captain!”
Wang Huan stood with his back ramrod straight and even adjusted his robe on purpose, feeling that he cut quite an imposing figure as captain.
That afternoon, Zhou Yu had run into a bottleneck while cultivating, so she had asked Wang Huan to take her shift for the night.
Since the usually aloof captain had come asking him for help, Wang Huan was secretly delighted and agreed at once.
He would not officially take up his post until tomorrow anyway, so he had nothing better to do. On the one hand, this would earn him some goodwill from Zhou Yu. On the other, it would let him put a little pressure on those squad members who had offended him. It was the best of both worlds.
“Captain Wang, I want to...” A female squad member raised her hand and looked at him pitifully.
“What are you staring at me for with those big eyes?” The moment Wang Huan saw that it was the woman who loved spreading gossip, he gave a cold snort. “No, you cannot. Even wanting to is a crime. Hold it in.”
All those rumors floating around the squad had come from this woman. Wang Huan had long since hated her to the bone.
“I just want to use the latrine...” the female squad member said bitterly, her legs pressed tightly together.
Wang Huan had been about to tease her a little more when the sudden change came.
A dark figure burst out from the mouth of the alley, carrying a fierce gust of wind as it lunged straight at him!
“Enemy attack!” Wang Huan shouted at once, hurriedly throwing a punch to meet the incoming man.
Bang!
Their fists collided. Amid the muffled impact, Wang Huan’s face flushed red. He felt a vicious, twisting force bore through his body, shaking his qi and blood until it churned violently, and he staggered back three steps.
‘This man’s strength is incredibly solid.’ Wang Huan frowned tightly and quickly circulated the force within his body to dispel it.
The one who had come was Jian Hanfeng. A smile hung at the corner of his lips as he said blandly, “Not a bad reaction. Your power is too scattered, though. You have only just begun learning the Benlei Fist, have you not?”
“Your force is only at the beginner stage too,” Wang Huan said coldly, his chest rising and falling as he stared at him.
But before he had even finished speaking, several more dark figures charged out from the alleys on both sides, watching him like tigers eyeing their prey.
As for the other few Second Meridian squad members, the sight of several Third Meridian martial artists arriving together had already frightened them so badly that their whole bodies were trembling. None of the attackers paid them any heed.
“You...” Wang Huan felt his heart turn icy cold. Four Third Meridian martial artists had come to launch a sneak attack. No matter how talented he was, did they really need this kind of lineup just for him?
“Stop wasting words with him. Finish this quickly, or Xu Yuan might be scared off,” Chen Qimei said as he began circulating his qi and blood and prepared to make a move, only to be interrupted by Jian Hanfeng:
“Leave it to me. None of them are getting away.”
He narrowed his eyes and looked at Wang Huan with a half-smile. “Boy, today I am going to show you that even among beginners, there are differences.”
“Xu Yuan? What does this have to do with him? Unless...” Wang Huan frowned.
But Jian Hanfeng gave him no time to think. Moving like a ghost, he closed the distance in an instant and unleashed several more punches. His style was ruthless and sinister, every strike aimed straight at vital points.
Wang Huan was both shocked and enraged as he barely managed to defend himself. But his opponent’s fist technique was far trickier, and his force was more condensed than Wang Huan’s. On top of that, Wang Huan had only broken through recently and was still not used to controlling his newfound strength.
Within just a few exchanges, he was deceived by a feint and took a punch to the shoulder. A burst of sharp pain shot through him, and half his body went numb.
“Captain Wang!” Seeing this, the other squad members cried out and rushed forward, only to be knocked to the ground in a few casual moves by one of the Third Meridian martial artists.
“So this is the so-called genius of Shangyang Residence? Still lacking in polish!”
Jian Hanfeng shook his head in disappointment. Then his figure flashed again. Taking advantage of Wang Huan’s unstable stance, he broke through his defense in two moves. His fist shot forward like lightning, aimed straight at Wang Huan’s throat. He was clearly trying to kill him in one blow!
“This is bad!”
Wang Huan’s pupils shrank sharply. He desperately tried to twist aside to dodge, but his injury slowed him by a split second. Death was already bearing down on him.
At that critical instant—
Whoosh!
A sharp object tore through the night with a shrill sound and slammed into Jian Hanfeng’s right arm, instantly breaking his attack.
Yet his reaction was astonishingly fast. A vicious gleam flashed through his eyes, and gritting his teeth, he forcefully switched moves, driving his knee upward like a sledgehammer toward Wang Huan’s lower abdomen.
Knowing reinforcements had arrived, Jian Hanfeng instinctively wanted to cripple his opponent first and remove one of the enemy’s fighting forces.
Unexpectedly, a hand suddenly thrust out between them and firmly pressed that move down. At the same time, a young voice rang out:
“Hey, friend, a fight is a fight, but leave the life alone, all right?”
“Who?” Jian Hanfeng whipped his head around and found himself face-to-face with a youthful, handsome boyish face. He immediately withdrew and retreated several steps, inwardly alarmed. ‘This man is fast.’
“You...” Wang Huan was still reeling from the shock, but when he saw that Xu Yuan had arrived, he felt relieved, though his emotions also turned complicated.
“It seems pretty lively tonight.”
Xu Yuan did not look at him again. His gaze swept indifferently across everyone present. When he saw Zhang Ergou, his brows lifted slightly. Then he looked toward the burly middle-aged man standing beside him, and understanding dawned on him at once.
“Wild Wolf Gang Leader, Quan Xiong? You really cannot let this go, can you?”
“Xu Yuan!” Quan Xiong said in a low voice from the distance. For some reason, the look in Xu Yuan’s eyes made his heart quail a little.
“You came at just the right time. Kill him too!” Chen Qimei had been toyed with for days already, and a wicked fire had long been burning in his heart. Now that the real target had appeared, his killing intent surged at once.
“So you are Xu Yuan?”
Though Jian Hanfeng was startled by Xu Yuan’s speed and strength, the arrogance in him did not diminish in the slightest. He shook out his numb right arm and said coldly,
“So you do have some skill. Even so, you are still going to die tonight!”
With that, his feet moved in a rapid sequence, like a swallow skimming the water. Twisting his body, he shot forward and drove a strike straight toward Xu Yuan’s right ribs with a Bai Family Seven Wounds Fist.
Bang!
The path of his fist was swift and unpredictable, as natural and untraceable as an antelope hanging its horns. It landed on Xu Yuan without the slightest obstruction, and delight flashed across Jian Hanfeng’s face. ‘Got him!’
At once, he circulated his qi and blood at high speed, and his barrage of punches came down like a storm, each one packed with force that drove deep into Xu Yuan’s body!
What should have come next was the sight of that force violently shredding Xu Yuan’s internal organs and killing him on the spot.
Only...
“You really are impressive. You cannot be a nobody in the Bai Family. What a pity.”
Xu Yuan’s expression did not change. The force within him, already at the Minor Mastery level, easily dissolved all of that invading force. Then he lifted a hand and reached for his opponent.
Jian Hanfeng’s eyes flew wide. He wanted to dodge, but his body could not keep up with that speed at all. He could only watch helplessly as Xu Yuan seized him by the throat and then slammed him viciously downward—
Under that overwhelming, monstrous strength, pain exploded through Jian Hanfeng’s body. He collapsed to the ground on the spot, the impact leaving stars bursting before his eyes and his mind blank.
Xu Yuan gave him no chance to rise. He planted a foot on Jian Hanfeng’s upper body, then drove down a punch. A three-foot stream of force punched straight through his chest.
There was only a soft tearing sound as a deep hole was blasted through Jian Hanfeng’s heart. Scalding blood splattered across the hem of Xu Yuan’s clothes, adding a brutal edge to his bearing.
“That is...?”
Chen Qimei and the others, who had been about to rush forward, all felt their pupils contract. That speed, that level of force... he was a Fourth Meridian martial artist!!
“You have got to be joking!” The two Third Meridian martial artists they had invited were so terrified their souls nearly fled their bodies, and they instantly stopped in their tracks.
Xu Yuan quickly swept his gaze around. Three Third Meridian fighters remained, along with four Second Meridian ones. Every last one of them was walking battle merit!
At that moment, he was like an old farmer standing in a field, looking out at golden wheat swaying in the wind, his heart filled with the joy of a bountiful harvest.