Era of Mist

To be honest, the delinquents at Fengming First Middle School might have acted the part, like they were in some kind of gang, but it didn’t take a genius to know that a prestigious high school full of top students was hardly a breeding ground for real thugs. Liu Shufeng lorded over Fengming First Middle School, calling himself one of the so-called "Four Celestial Kings." But the moment he clashed with men who actually ran the streets, the difference was immediately clear.

Setting aside their physical conditioning and fighting skills, just the sheer viciousness of their attacks and their savage disregard for the consequences were on a level mere students could never match.

Liu Shufeng immediately felt immense pressure.

He untied the jacket from his waist and threw it, covering a thug’s head. He then grabbed a bench with his left hand and smashed it down a couple of times before narrowly dodging a baseball bat swinging at him from behind. In just a few short moves, Liu Shufeng felt like he was fighting for his life.

Zhou Xiong, Zhou Nan, and their four followers at his side were faring even worse.

’A dozen or so enemies, and the seven of us are already struggling this much? What about Shi Tiexin? Has he been beaten to death already?’

Liu Shufeng risked a glance over in the middle of the fight and was nearly scared stiff by what he saw.

The enemies over there were packed into a tight mob, but suddenly, that mob scattered like bowling pins, howling in pain.

Shi Tiexin had somehow grabbed a man’s hand. His iron grip seized, bent, and twisted. With a sickening CRACK from the man’s wrist, the thug let out a blood-curdling shriek. Flexing his powerful arm, Shi Tiexin began to spin, dragging the man along by his wrist. The pain was so bone-deep that, far from resisting, the man actually scrambled to run along with the spin, trying to ease the agony, which only made the circle turn faster.

Swinging his arm, Shi Tiexin launched the man outwards like a human meteor hammer. The man howled as he flew through the air and crashed into a large group of thugs, taking them all down.

From behind, two men roared as they leaped into the air, swinging their clubs in wide arcs down toward Shi Tiexin’s head.

Without even looking back, Shi Tiexin took a small step back and ducked under the attack. Then, clenching his fists and infusing them with primordial qi, he shot both hands backward. BAM! BAM! His iron fists struck true, right below their soft abdomens. The two men went limp like chicks hanging from his arms, half-dead and foaming at the mouth.

"Hsss..." The BBQ stall owner behind them winced as if he had a toothache. "That’s brutal..."

Retracting his arms and shaking off the two incapacitated men, Shi Tiexin suddenly leaped high into the air. His false core stirred, flooding his legs with primordial qi. Then, like twin heavy cannons, his legs blasted out horizontally to either side.

CRACK! THWACK! Two men, one to his left and one to his right, spat out blood and broken teeth. Their heads snapped back as they collapsed without another sound. As Shi Tiexin landed, he extended his arms and perfectly caught the two falling baseball bats.

He caught one bat perfectly by the handle and, with a forehand swing, cracked it against a man’s shoulder. The crunching sound was sickening. The other bat, however, he caught by the barrel. Treating it like a javelin, Shi Tiexin threw it. With a WHOOSH, it pierced the wall of thugs and slammed into a man’s throat.

With a sickening thud, the man clutched his throat and collapsed, his face turning a deep, purplish red.

The BBQ stall owner couldn’t help but rub his own throat, visibly shaken. "What a monster!"

As the thug fell, he revealed Teng Chaoguo, who had been hiding at the very back. Scared out of his wits, he was scrambling away on all fours.

Expressionless, Shi Tiexin strode purposefully toward him.

The bulge of the false core in his lower abdomen subsided. A moment ago, it had been the size of a soybean; now, it was smaller than a green bean. The reason was simple: consumption. While Liu Shufeng and his group were exhausted from fighting just one or two opponents, Shi Tiexin had taken down more than a dozen in one go. Naturally, the volume of his false core had shrunk.

But Shi Tiexin felt no regret.

’Is there ever a fight without a price? If I hadn’t consumed the power of my false core, how could I have been so invincible, cutting down anyone in my path? It was precisely because I’d spent the last ten-plus days accumulating primordial qi, and because I’d condensed it into a false core, that I was able to display such overwhelming might.’

’To accumulate one’s stamina and then unleash it all at once when needed—this is the very essence of the Vigor Arts’ Spirit Nurturing stage.’

’Besides, now that the false core is formed, as long as I don’t deplete it completely, I won’t have to start over from the Spirit Storing stage. I’ve used a tremendous amount today, but as long as I win this battle, the rest will be easy. Even if I’m gone, this Champion Scholar Stone body will just have to follow a proper diet and supplement regimen, and the false core will recover quickly. It can then continue to evolve toward a larger, more perfect state.’

’One day, when the false core is as large as a chicken’s egg and my primordial qi flows without end, I’ll be able to shatter the core and forge sharpness, entering the Sharp Qi Realm.’

’At that point, the Vigor Arts will reach a whole new level.’

As these thoughts crossed his mind, Shi Tiexin continued to walk forward. With every step, he passed a fallen thug. Not a single one of the thugs he passed could get back up; they all lay perfectly still, silent, their states unknown—dead or alive.

Shi Tiexin’s false core was almost depleted. If he had to fight with that same explosive power, he could probably take down only five or six more opponents before collapsing from exhaustion. But in battle, momentum is everything. Far from showing any panic, Shi Tiexin appeared even more imposing and domineering, his gait as powerful as a stalking tiger.

’Look. The thugs still on their feet... they’re terrified. They’ve surrounded me, but their faces are masks of fear. They’ve already lost their nerve!’

And why wouldn’t they be? They had no idea about his true condition, no idea that the primordial qi he’d stored up was nearly exhausted. All they could see was a guy who had single-handedly taken down more than a dozen men without so much as breathing hard or breaking a sweat.

It wasn’t just the thugs surrounding Shi Tiexin. Even the ones fighting Zhou Xiong’s group, and indeed, Zhou Xiong’s group themselves, were all completely dumbfounded.

"His rules... so that’s what he meant..." Zhou Xiong muttered in a daze. "So these... these are the rules he talked about..."

Striding forward like a force of nature, Shi Tiexin closed in on the horrified Teng Chaoguo. In both of their fights, the man had been taken down almost instantly. Now, he was a mess of frustration, despair, and terror. A large gash on his forehead streamed blood down his face, dripping into his eyes and turning his whole world a hellish red.

In this blood-red world, the silent Shi Tiexin looked all the more terrifying, like a great demon closing in for the kill.

"Go! Get him! What are you all standing around for!" Teng Chaoguo shrieked in panic at the thugs still on their feet. "Hurry up and kill him! I’ll pay! I’ll pay you anything!"

One of the thugs let out a desperate yell and charged at Shi Tiexin, leading four or five others in an attack from behind.

Shi Tiexin didn’t turn back. His false core bulged once more as a powerful surge of primordial qi poured into his legs.

He suddenly ducked, disappearing from the arc of the bats. One long leg swept out like a massive pillar, slamming into a thug’s shin. The man howled in pain as his entire body went rigid and horizontal in mid-air, like a plank.

Before the man could fall, a second, lightning-fast kick slammed viciously into his chest. With a sickening CRACK-CRACK, of who knows how many broken ribs, the thug was sent flying backward, mowing down the men charging in behind him.