Thunder Blade Lei Lie

In a corner, a burly man with a scar across his face could no longer hold back. He slammed his palm on the table and rose to his feet.

"Kid, don't get cocky!"

"I'm a True Meridian Realm martial artist, no matter what. Killing you is more than enough!"

His words were fierce, but his feet seemed nailed to the floor. He did not dare move forward a single step.

Everyone had seen it—this kid drank Blazing Fire Brew as though it were plain water.

Who the hell dared go first?

Whoever went first would die first.

Shen Che sneered, too lazy to spare the scar-faced man another glance.

He could sense even stronger auras lying in wait in the shadows.

Since Bai Huaying, the eldest son of the White King's Mansion, had set up this trap, there was certainly more to it than this.

Just as the standoff reached its peak.

The inn's heavy wooden doors were shoved open.

A middle-aged man in purple robes, built like an iron tower, strode inside.

Every step he took seemed to land upon the beating of everyone's hearts, heavy and powerful.

A scorching, tyrannical aura instantly filled the entire hall with his arrival.

Bai Fengling felt his breath catch, as though an invisible hand had clamped around his throat.

He had the illusion that this man could crush him more easily than he could crush an ant.

In the hall, an elderly man who appeared rather knowledgeable dropped his wine cup with a clang when he saw the newcomer.

"Th-Thunder Blade... Lei Lie!"

"Thirty-first on the Earth Ranking! Why is he here?!"

An Earth Ranking powerhouse!

Even Shen Che was somewhat surprised. He had heard that name before.

One of the Great Sun Kingdom's foremost experts, an outstanding figure among those in the Primordial Qi Realm.

It was said that he had once been a genius of the Thunder Blade Sect. When his master refused to pass down the sect's supreme art, the Thunder Blade Secret Manual, he killed his master in fury and betrayed the sect.

The Thunder Blade Sect had issued a martial world kill order for him, only for him to slaughter more than a dozen experts in return.

From then on, he had become a lone wanderer. With his tyrannical blade techniques, he had carved out a path through blood and steel, becoming one of the strongest beneath the Innate Realm.

Elder Bai's face turned pale. He forced himself to stand and cupped his hands toward Lei Lie.

"Sir Lei Lie, we are from the White King's Mansion. This is Prince Bai's son."

"I hope you will show consideration for the Prince's sake..."

"Prince Bai?"

Lei Lie grinned, baring a mouthful of white teeth, his laughter dripping with mockery.

"What the hell is he supposed to be?"

"When I, Lei Lie, kill people, I only look at the price. Whoever pays more, I help."

"Forget his son—even if Prince Bai himself were standing here, if the price were high enough, I'd still chop him down!"

Elder Bai was choked speechless by those words, his old face flushing the color of pig liver.

Lei Lie ignored him, sat down at the neighboring table with the imposing ease of a great general, and poured himself a bowl of wine.

His gaze settled on Shen Che.

"I heard you took down Zhang Kuangfeng and several thousand of his men all by yourself."

"Interesting."

He drained the bowl in one gulp and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Kid, I'll give you a chance."

"My employer is willing to pay you twice what Bai Fengling offered."

"Pull out now, take the money, and leave. We'll pretend this never happened."

Twice the reward!

That was wealth worth far more than a Marrow Cleansing Pill.

Bai Fengling's heart leaped into his throat.

Elder Bai also watched Shen Che tensely, terrified that he might waver.

Shen Che picked up the wine jug and filled his empty teacup with wine.

"I'm not that kind of scum."

He raised his cup and offered Lei Lie a distant toast.

"If you take the money, you see the job through. That's the rule."

Lei Lie looked at him, then suddenly burst into loud laughter.

"Good! Well said!"

As his laughter ceased, his expression turned teasing.

"Actually, I was just being polite."

"Even if you agreed, I'd still have to fight you today."

Lei Lie stuck out his tongue and licked his cracked lips, his whole body radiating a battle-hungry fervor.

"Damn it, it's been far too long since I met an opponent as interesting as you. My hands are itching something fierce."

Rather than becoming nervous upon hearing this, the other assassins in the inn all revealed excited expressions.

A clash between Earth Ranking powerhouses!

This was a spectacle money could not buy.

Lei Lie slowly rose to his feet.

"Kid, let me see whether you, this newly emerged hard bone, are tougher—or whether my fists, Lei Lie's fists, are tougher!"

The moment his words fell.

The bluestone slabs beneath Lei Lie's feet cracked inch by inch.

His body left behind only a faint afterimage where he stood.

He was so fast that the naked eye could barely follow him.

A scorching gale rushed at Shen Che's face, accompanied by a piercing sonic boom.

A fist the size of a cooking pot had already surged before Shen Che.

The might of this punch surpassed the likes of Yan Hong by far more than a single level.

This was the true peak combat power of the Primordial Qi Realm!

Facing Lei Lie's earth-shattering punch, Shen Che advanced instead of retreating.

He raised his own fist as well.

There was no Qi projected outward, no dazzling radiance.

It was merely an ordinary, simple punch.

Nearly four hundred thousand jin of pure physical strength erupted from him without the slightest reservation.

One large and one small, two utterly disproportionate fists collided savagely in the center of the inn's main hall.

BOOM—!

The sound was not like flesh striking flesh, but more like two meteors from beyond the heavens smashing head-on into each other.

A visible white shockwave exploded outward from the two of them.

Everyone in the inn felt their eardrums buzz as their hearing temporarily vanished.

Several martial artists standing nearby were hurled away by the aftershock, blood spraying from their mouths.

Tables, chairs, and benches did not even have the chance to break apart beneath the blast. They were directly reduced to dust that filled the air.

The bluestone floor beneath their feet split with savage cracks like a spiderweb.

The entire inn trembled violently beneath that heaven-shaking strike, as though it might collapse at any moment.

A violent purple Raging Thunder Qi coiled around Lei Lie's fist like maggots clinging to bone, crazily invading up Shen Che's arm, intent on shredding his internal organs to pieces.

"Raging Thunder Qi! Kid, die!"

A cruel grin appeared on Lei Lie's face.

But in the next instant, the smile on his face froze.

Within Shen Che's body, an even more condensed and tyrannical force suddenly erupted.

Vajra Zen Fist—Zen Thunder!

The invading purple lightning seemed like a mouse encountering a cat. Swept by that hidden force, it was instantly crushed and dissipated into nothingness.

An irresistible force rebounded back at him.

Lei Lie's body seemed to have been struck head-on by some prehistoric beast.

"Pfft!"

He spat out a mouthful of blood and was sent flying backward uncontrollably.

BOOM!

The inn's thick wall was smashed open into a huge hole by his body.

He flew out of the inn and crashed heavily into the street, plowing a deep trench more than ten meters long through the ground before finally stopping.

Inside and outside the inn, there was a deathly silence.

Everyone was dumbfounded.

That was Thunder Blade Lei Lie, thirty-first on the Earth Ranking!

One of the Great Sun Kingdom's foremost experts!

And yet he had been... sent flying by a single punch from an unknown young man?