Sneaking In (Thanks to I Have Two Pots of Wine for the Support)

"This world is far more terrifying than I imagined."

Baili Qingfeng sat on the futon, his expression grave.

A War-level martial artist could temper their body and break through the limits of the human body. Fully armed and sent to the battlefield, they were killing machines, with one person comparable to a battalion of soldiers. As for existences above the War-level...

Wouldn't one person be an army!?

Martial artists were powerful and looked down on the law. With a deadly weapon in hand, murderous intent arose of its own accord; wiping out an entire household was as easy as eating or drinking.

No wonder...

Half a year ago, he had been an innocent passerby who had just finished a job interview and was heading home. He had not provoked anyone at all, yet a villain had shoved him forward to block the way, then struck him with a palm. If that palm had landed on an ordinary person...

They would have died!

At the time, he had thought people like Wang Gang and Jiang Ziheng were vicious, and the shock had left him unable to eat or sleep, lying awake through the night. That was what had led him onto the path of practicing martial arts with Second Grandfather.

Now that he thought about it...

All martial artists were cut from the same cloth, killing people at the drop of a hat and wiping out entire households whenever they pleased.

When he had gone to Sumen City, he had only killed the chief culprit. After killing Jiang Ziheng, he had gone straight home, naively thinking the Jiang Family would be afraid and would not seek revenge. How childish and innocent that had been.

Hadn't Jiang Hengshan hired the assassin Francolin to assassinate him later, slapping him in the face almost immediately?

Fortunately, Jiang Hengshan had hired an assassin to kill him first instead of striking at him while simultaneously wiping out his entire household. Otherwise, if Baili Hong and Baili Die had died because of his negligence...

He would have spent the rest of his life consumed by guilt.

"I'm indeed still too young. Jiang Ziheng, Wang Gang, Jiang Hengshan, Eddie, Et... Every martial artist I've encountered has been so lawless and deranged... Their world is too vicious, too terrifying, completely at odds with the peaceful life I want. Once I kill Wang Gang and completely calm the unease in my heart, I'll withdraw from the martial world and never provoke its people again."

Baili Qingfeng made up his mind.

But...

Wang Gang seemed to belong to a sect?

The Iron Sword Sect?

A moment later, he suddenly thought of something and abruptly stopped.

"Wait a minute—the Iron Sword Sect!"

In the next moment...

His face suddenly went pale.

Deathly pale!

"I overlooked an extremely important factor!"

Hong Lie!

"Miro City, the capital of Daluo Province! Hong Lie is from Daluo Province, from the Iron Sword Sect!?"

He remembered now.

Wang Gang, an elder of the Iron Sword Sect, a master of the Tiger's Roar Fist, a famous martial arts grandmaster, and president of the Miro City Martial Arts Association.

"Hong Lie and Wang Gang are actually both members of the Iron Sword Sect!?"

Once he connected the dots, Baili Qingfeng's expression turned extremely ugly.

"Sects have always been bound together by flesh and bone. After I defeated Hong Lie, I was already at risk of the old coming after me because I had beaten the young. Now Wang Gang and I already have a grudge between us... If he finds out that I was the one who defeated Hong Lie, he definitely won't let the matter rest..."

Baili Qingfeng had not expected that only a moment ago he had been thinking about withdrawing from the martial world, yet now he was facing an unprecedentedly perilous murderous crisis.

These were people of the martial world—martial artists!

A tiny Jiang Family had been able to produce a vicious man like Jiang Hengshan. When he could not defeat Baili Qingfeng head-on, he had dared to hire an assassin to kill him. Once Wu Li had achieved something in his cultivation, he had even stormed the Wang Family and tried to wipe out the entire household. As for Wang Gang of the far more powerful Iron Sword Sect...

Just how vicious would he be!?

If he targeted only Baili Qingfeng himself, things would still be manageable. Baili Qingfeng could take a beating and recover quickly, so he was not afraid. But given how ruthless these martial artists were, they would never spare his family.

He had watched plenty of television shows. In them, the protagonist possessed overwhelming strength against the villain, only to be rendered helpless after the villain captured their parents, relatives, or beloved.

Although the protagonist would always counterkill the villain at death's door in the end, and the evildoer would certainly be punished severely, that was television...

Television was one thing, reality another.

What was shown on television represented only a tiny minority. It was filmed because it was bizarre and unbelievable, while far more people simply died silently at the hands of villains.

Moreover, with villains' brutality, after the main character died, they absolutely would not honor their word and spare his family. By then...

His family would be torn apart and his loved ones dead!

"My family will be torn apart and my loved ones will die!"

Baili Qingfeng's expression turned icy.

His current predicament was at least ten times more terrifying than the Jiang Family's previous threat. This was a genuine crisis of family destruction and death, a catastrophe of the highest order!

The more dangerous the moment, the calmer one had to remain.

Without hesitation, Baili Qingfeng rose and went to the training ground outside. He called to Ran Tianchi, "Come here for a moment. I have something to ask you."

Ran Tianchi, who was practicing the Body Refining Technique, looked puzzled but soon came to Baili Qingfeng's Cultivation Room. "Master, what are your orders?"

"Let me ask you: do you know where Hong Lie is now?"

"Hong Lie?"

Ran Tianchi paused. "I heard my father say that he's been staying at Green Water Manor in the East Suburbs of Xia Ya to recuperate."

"I understand."

Baili Qingfeng forced himself to remain calm. "Go practice."

"Yes."

Ran Tianchi did not understand what was going on, but he still withdrew.

"As expected!"

After Ran Tianchi left, Baili Qingfeng's heart sank.

His guess...

Was very likely true.

Hong Lie—or rather, the Iron Sword Sect—would not let the matter rest!

Otherwise, with the injuries Hong Lie had sustained, he definitely would have left Xia Ya to recuperate elsewhere. The fact that he was staying in Xia Ya and refusing to leave proved that they still harbored evil intentions.

"He must be staying in Xia Ya while waiting for reinforcements. No, I'm only a student who has practiced martial arts for half a year and isn't even twenty yet. I'm alone and weak. Once his reinforcements arrive, how could I possibly resist? I have to strike first. Hopefully, I can still make it in time!"

Baili Qingfeng rose.

But just as he was about to leave, his gaze fell on the sword in his hand.

This time, the opponents he had to face might not be merely Hong Lie and Wang Gang, but...

The entire Iron Sword Sect!

"Although I use fist techniques when fighting people, in truth, I've integrated swordsmanship into my fist techniques. I've never actually practiced a fist technique. Today, I may have to oppose a major sect like the Iron Sword Sect, which holds sway over an entire city. It'll be a narrow escape from death, perhaps even ten deaths and no life. If I'm unarmed on top of that, how much more dangerous will it be?"

With that thought, he placed the sword into the Sword Box.

This sword had been presented to him by Morpheus not long ago, when Baili Qingfeng had displayed the strength with which he defeated Hong Lie. It had been forged from alloy by a renowned master and was worth a great deal.

At the very least...

Its quality was far higher than the sword he had taken from Second Grandfather's house, the kind used by middle-aged and elderly women for square dancing.

After placing the sword into the Sword Box and securing it, Baili Qingfeng glanced outside. It was already nearly nine in the evening. Carrying a solemn air, he left the club.

To save money, he had originally planned to take a bus. But Green Water Manor was located in the suburbs, and no bus went there directly. The nearest stop was still 1.5 kilometers away on foot.

Normally, 1.5 kilometers was 1.5 kilometers—not especially far. But the problem was...

It was nine o'clock.

The bus driver had gone off work.

Baili Qingfeng had no choice but to hail a taxi. After haggling with the driver for a while, he set off for Green Water Manor.

Half an hour later, Baili Qingfeng arrived at the cement road outside Green Water Manor.

Although Green Water Manor was called a manor...

In reality, it was merely a small resort hotel.

It consisted of two buildings and six somewhat distinctive villas arranged around a pond.

On ordinary days, people fished and chatted there. From time to time, they could even climb the hillock not far from the manor and sit for a while, enjoying a rustic charm reminiscent of "picking chrysanthemums beneath the eastern hedge, leisurely gazing upon the Southern Mountains."

A perimeter wall?

There wasn't one.

Taking advantage of the night, Baili Qingfeng soon reached Green Water Manor. Like a ghost, he hid and infiltrated the grounds, his movement technique "extremely" professional.

One of the manor's two buildings contained the cafeteria and meeting rooms. The other was the accommodation area, with four floors and anywhere from ten to twenty rooms on each floor.

Whether the manor's business was poor or for some other reason, its occupancy rate was low. Baili Qingfeng went from room to room, stopping whenever he found someone inside to listen and see if he could obtain any useful information.

But...

An hour passed.

"By rights, whenever I lurk outside these doors and eavesdrop, the people inside should be discussing some major secrets, allowing me to learn the enemy's detailed information and force distribution so that I can defeat them one by one. How come... apart from some strange panting, I haven't heard a single piece of useful intelligence..."

Baili Qingfeng was speechless. He could only go downstairs to the front desk.

The receptionist was a woman in her thirties who was watching a movie on the computer. When Baili Qingfeng arrived, she did not even greet him.

Thus, Baili Qingfeng had no choice but to step forward and say, "I'm looking for someone named Hong Lie."

"We don't provide guests' information here. If you're looking for someone, go find him yourself..."

"Watching movies during work? What's your complaint number?"

Baili Qingfeng patted the desk, somewhat displeased.

The receptionist rolled her eyes at Baili Qingfeng, but seeing that he was a sunny, handsome young man, she did not mock him. Reluctantly, she minimized the video and searched before pointing outside. "The fourth villa in the villa area."

(Thanks to I Have Two Pots of Wine for the reward. The final alliance master before the nuclear explosion ended—and now the second alliance master is just within reach. Thank you for your continued support and companionship.)